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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25445209">After the Fall</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shotgun_sinner/pseuds/Shotgun_sinner'>Shotgun_sinner</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>After the Fall [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bottom Hannibal Lecter, Bottom Will Graham, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Dialogue Heavy, Hannibal Lecter Loves Will Graham, Jealous Will Graham, M/M, Murder Husbands, Porn with Feelings, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Power Bottom Will Graham, Sassy Will Graham, Top Hannibal Lecter, Top Will Graham, Will Graham Loves Hannibal Lecter, graphic depiction of murder, no beta we die like men</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:15:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>59,017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25445209</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shotgun_sinner/pseuds/Shotgun_sinner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Will comes to terms with the darkness that exists in him, and where Hannibal fits into his life after their fall from the cliffside.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>After the Fall [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852015</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>158</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>406</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello fellow fannibals,<br/>I am brand new to this fandom. Like, a month old, I guess. Discovered it on Netflix and I haven't been able to breathe since I finished watching it, three times already. I know you all must understand. I am very rusty at writing fanfiction. The last fic I've written was for The X Files fandom, so... many moons ago. This is a super self-indulgent fic. Like, it's basically what I felt I needed for closure. It's completed, and will be updated just as quickly as I can edit it. It isn't, in my opinion, great. But, IF it gives you a hint of joy, then you deserve it, fellow Hannigram friends. God, do you deserve it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They were standing in the living area of the bluff house. The air around them was blurry, as though suffused with too much light. He watched Hannibal hand him the glass of wine, the edges of his vision narrowing out, surrounded by blackness.</p><p>The shot came. Not a shock, because he knew it would.</p><p>It came higher than it was supposed to. The bullet tore through Hannibal’s chest, tearing the life out of him as it did.</p><p>Will collapsed to his knees as the blood poured from Hannibal’s wound. It kept coming and coming, sloshing against Will’s knees in a relentless torrent. </p><p>Will didn’t notice. His eyes were watching as the life faded from Hannibal’s eyes. A light behind them dimming before going out.</p><p>He would drown here, in the gore of Hannibal’s dead body. </p><p>A scream tore from Will’s throat as he sat up in a bed, sweating so profusely that his cheek stung from the salt of it. His side was throbbing in pain, his broken ribs protesting the abrupt way that he sat up in his unconsciousness.</p><p>“Will?” Hannibal called softly as he came into the bedroom and sat at the side of Will’s bed. “Will, it was a nightmare. You’re alright.”</p><p>“Hannibal?” Will gasped, his right hand clutching briefly at Hannibal’s sweater. “You’re okay. You’re okay,” he panted, closing his eyes against the after-images of blood he could still see and smell.</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes were cautious as he looked at Will. “As are you. Do you know where you are?”</p><p>Will chuckled as he pressed a gentle hand to his aching ribs. “It’s the ass crack of dawn. I’m in a cabin that belongs to you. My name is Will Graham.”</p><p>“Good,” Hannibal said with a quirk of his lips.</p><p>“Sorry if I woke you with all my screaming.”</p><p>Hannibal stood from the bed, carefully so as not to injure his own healing wounds. “It’s no bother, Will.”</p><p>“Stay for a minute?” Will asked, his voice terribly small.</p><p>Despite the request, Hannibal remained standing. “Of course. Would you care to talk about it?”</p><p>“Not even a little bit, thanks.” Will said dismissively. “I’d just like you here to remind me that you’re breathing.”</p><p>Hannibal walked over to the side of the bed, reaching for Will’s right hand and pressing it to his chest. “I assure you, I am breathing.”</p><p>Sliding his hand over to the left side a bit, Will sighed as he felt the steady heartbeat under his palm. “Okay,” he swallowed, removing his hand slowly and pressing it to his own heart. “Okay,” he repeated.</p><p>“Get some rest. Your body needs it.” Hannibal said quietly as he left the room.</p><p>Will barely remembers after the fall. He’d taken to calling it that. ‘After the fall,’ as though it were an accident. As though he didn’t intentionally fling them both into the abyss. He bared the brunt of the injuries from his lapse in judgement, most likely because he turned their bodies and took the impact of the fall himself.</p><p>He remembers white-hot pain unlike anything he’s ever experienced in his life, but it was extraordinarily short-lived. Immediately after Hannibal breathed life back into his body on a rocky beach, he promptly vomited about a gallon of sea water and passed out from the pain of it all. </p><p>When he came around the second time, it was in a cabin that was under an alias of Chiyoh’s, and he was immensely medicated. Hannibal was by his side, his face resigned while he listed everything that had happened to him. He’d been out four days. Hannibal had fixed his face and his shoulder, as well as reset bones in his arm that had broken upon impact with the water. There were apparently broken ribs, besides, but not much to be done about them aside from a gentle wrapping.</p><p>Will barely remembers those days in recovery. They were soft and fuzzy around the edges, with pain meds and pain in general. Hannibal was recovering as well, apparently aided by Chiyoh herself with his wounds, but he faired much better than Will had.</p><p>The nightmares were the worst of it, though. He would consistently forget himself as he startled awake, and pain would lance his shoulder and his ribs hard enough to bring tears.<br/>
The last two weeks had passed this way, and Will’s body was so tired and aching that he hardly ever left the bed.</p><p>He hobbled to the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror, completely unable to reconcile with his reflection. His face was not as bad as he feared. Hannibal had done a good job suturing. It would leave a scar, however. A very noticeable one at that.</p><p>The rest of him was a mottled mess of bruises, varying in shade from plum to lemon yellow. His hair was sticky and dirty. He wanted a shower but would unfortunately require help in that area. “Hannibal?” he croaked. </p><p>He heard tentative footsteps outside the door, and a gentle knock. “Will?”</p><p>“Come in.”</p><p>Hannibal eased in the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. His eyes assessed Will’s naked torso, his mouth a tight line. “You really should not have gotten out of bed without help,” he scolded.</p><p>“I had to piss, which I can manage on my own.”</p><p>Hannibal regarded him dryly. “Then what do you need?”</p><p>Will could feel his cheeks heating, whether from shame or anger he wasn’t exactly certain. “I feel disgusting. I’d like to shower or at least wash up, and if you could please help me with that I would be grateful.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes wandered to the bathtub and back to Will, assessing. “A bath may be better. You could keep your stitches and cast dry that way. I’d be happy to help you, Will.”</p><p>Will nodded, his voice suddenly lost with the idea of being that… vulnerable with Hannibal. There was no other way, though. </p><p>Hannibal set to the task, filling the tub and arranging soaps and glass bottles. It seemed more than necessary to Will, who usually used his bodywash as shampoo. The kind with the little ship on the bottle.</p><p>The kind Molly bought him for Christmas.</p><p>“Ready, Will.”</p><p>Will swallowed dryly as he awkwardly shucked his dirty pajama pants. Hannibal helped lower him into the tub, the edges of his vision going blurry with pain. Once settled, though, it actually felt wonderful.<br/>
Hannibal tilted his head back gently, thumb pressed softly to the underside of his chin. Using a plastic measuring cup, he wet Will’s hair and gently worked a mint-scented shampoo into his locks. “May we speak frankly?” Hannibal asked.</p><p>“I guess.”</p><p>Hannibal took a moment to rinse the suds from Wil’s hair before speaking again. “Were you trying to kill me?” His voice stayed neutral as he asked, but Will picked up an errant feeling of betrayal. </p><p>Will turned to look at the older man, who stilled his soaped-up sponge as their eyes met. “Mostly myself, but if you died with me then so be it.”</p><p>Hannibal’s swallow clicked in the quiet of the room. “Why would you do such a thing?”</p><p>Will shrugged and turned his eyes forward to gaze at the rusty faucet. “I love who I am when I am with you,” he confessed. “I loved how I felt while we slayed a dragon together.”</p><p>The silence after the admission was punctuated with the gentle way that Hannibal cleaned his skin. </p><p>Will sighed, “I hate that I love it. I loathe the pull you have over me. I was standing on a precipice where I could embrace this darkness in me once and for all, or stop myself from letting it take over. It seemed a reasonable thing to do at the time.”</p><p>“Are you resentful that we both lived?”</p><p>Will swallowed, his throat tight with emotion as he considered the question. “No. I’m… relieved.”</p><p>Hannibal stayed quiet, his hands working gently and methodically, absolutely clinical in their movement on his skin. “I will have to be moving on, soon,” he said quietly. “If it would please you, I will leave you behind. I swear to you, Will, that I will never harm your family. I would not look for you. You would not have to think of me ever again.”</p><p>Will’s breathing had become shallow with Hannibal’s words, but before he could respond, Hannibal stood up. “You should be able to clean the rest of yourself with no issue. Take care not to wet your stitches, please. I’ll be right outside the door when you are finished.”</p><p>A chilled breeze hit Will’s damp shoulders as the bathroom door opened and shut. </p><p>Will’s throat was tight with unshed tears, but he managed to finish his bath without any falling.</p><p> </p><p>Will kept to himself for almost a week after that. Their only exchanges being perfunctory ones where Hannibal brought him food or checked injuries. A few times he popped in to check on Will after a grueling nightmare, but he was always distant. Always polite.</p><p>He knew he would need to speak to Hannibal sooner or later, but what he would say when the time came was mostly unknown.</p><p>He missed Molly and Walter. He missed his dogs. He ached for the quiet life he had made for himself in a way that physically hurt to think about. His wife’s gentle touch, her warm smile, the way her golden hair looked in the sunlight. Walter’s bright laugh when playing with the dogs. It wasn’t… his idea of perfection, but it was comfortable. Safe.</p><p>His mind felt physically assaulted by the idea of never seeing any of it again.</p><p>Then his mind would wander into the other possibility.</p><p>Hannibal. There was always a low ache when he thought about him. The fingers of his right hand absently traced the raised ridge of the scar on his abdomen.</p><p>He could rose-tint his happiness with his new family all he wanted, but he alone knew the ugly, disfigured, truth of it. Yes, he had found joy, but more often than not-.</p><p>His breath left him as he allowed the tiny thought more head room.</p><p>More often than not, he mourned the life he could have shared with Hannibal. Their relationship was violent and volatile. Hannibal had tried to kill him a few times, and Will had really, really, wanted to kill Hannibal on more than one occasion. They had both hurt one another emotionally more than two people should be capable of. Yet-</p><p>Hannibal knew him better than anyone ever had. Accepted him, fully, regardless of his mercurial moods or darker tendencies. After Hannibal surrendered, Will realized that even without the violence that Hannibal had nurtured, he had become more self-confident.  </p><p>He was not on any spectrum. Until Hannibal, he was just a guy that liked to take up as little room as possible and make no impression on anyone. He was a ghost, or perhaps more accurately, a piece of fine china. Useful when needed, out of sight when not. </p><p>Molly noticed him because he made eye-contact with her. His shirt fit him well. His eyes were not hidden and darting away from her from behind glasses he didn’t really need. He held his head higher after Hannibal. Confident in himself in a way that he had never been before.</p><p>His empathy still managed to snag and snare on the emotions of the people around him, but it didn’t weigh him down so much anymore. He could tune it out and readjust it to fit his life, instead of it forcing him to mold himself around other people. </p><p>Hannibal did that. </p><p>He needed to consider all of this, before deciding. His stomach rolled with a final thought. There was also the fact that for the last three years of his life, he had missed Hannibal deeply.</p><p>Not a single day went by where his mind didn’t conjure up a perfect likeness of his other half. Taunting him with jabs and barbs rarely. More-often reassuring and supportive when Will needed him. </p><p>The fact that he wasn’t actually there was always agonizing to come to terms with. In rare moments, it took all of Will’s restraint not to call someone and figure out how to set up a visit.<br/>
Will sighed and left his bedroom.</p><p>His decision was made when he realized he considered Hannibal his other half.</p><p> </p><p>Will found him in the kitchen, speaking lowly with Chiyoh while they went over what looked like paperwork and passports. Hannibal glanced up when he walked in, and Will felt a stab of something he could not name as Hannibal hid the paperwork with a quick flick of his wrist before he could really see it.</p><p>“Will,” he greeted. “Good to see you moving around.”</p><p>Will tugged gently on the arm brace strap tied around his neck. “I am having a lot of difficulty putting a shirt on,” he admitted quietly.</p><p>Hannibal nodded and stood fluidly, smoothing the front of his burgundy sweater as his did so. “I’ll be right back,” he assured Chiyoh. </p><p>Hannibal led the way to Will’s room, and Will shut the door behind them to give an air of privacy. There was no doubt Chiyoh would hear their conversation, but it was better than nothing.</p><p>Hannibal reached for the tee-shirt on the bed and tutted, “A button down would be much easier for you for the time being.”</p><p>Will shrugged, “Whatever you think is better.”</p><p>Hannibal nodded and pulled a blue button down from the closet, working the buttons open with deft fingers.</p><p>Will licked his lips and tried to speak for a few minutes but couldn’t get the words to unstick from his throat.  Hannibal pretended not to notice while he unstrapped Will’s shoulder brace and slid the sleeves over his arms, unbuttoning the wrist of the left sleeve to get it over the cast. </p><p>The smell of Hannibal in the small room was overwhelmingly clean; cedar and a lighter note of citrus. Will inhaled audibly, and Hannibal’s whiskey colored eyes settled on his heavily.</p><p>“I will do you the favor of telling you that you do not need to trouble yourself,” Hannibal said breezily. “I take your silence as an answer in itself.”</p><p>Hannibal was buttoning the shirt, and Will stilled his moving fingers by wrapping them tightly in his right hand. “No,” he breathed. Hannibal’s jaw set stubbornly in response, and he swallowed audibly in an attempt to clear his throat. “I-, I want to come with you,” he said finally, his voice barely a whisper.</p><p>Hannibal huffed and snapped his fingers out from under Will’s own, continuing their assent with buttoning. “You most certainly do not. If it’s fear for your loved ones that motivates you, I’ve already promised I would not harm them. I promise I will not send anyone to harm them. I keep my promises, Will.”</p><p>Will shook his head as Hannibal finished buttoning the shirt. Hannibal moved to step aside and leave the room, but Will grabbed Hannibal’s wrist roughly to stop him. “That’s not why, please, just give me a minute?”</p><p>The sigh Hannibal made was a measured one. “I’ve kept you here with me selfishly. These past few weeks with barely a word between us, all I could feel was delight at being in your company again. Even though I was under the misapprehension that you tried to kill me. Imagine how it felt, hearing that you wished to perish to finally shed yourself of me. I almost didn’t believe you, Will.” Hannibal’s eyes were glassy, his tone turned sour and accusing in a way that reminded Will of that horrible night in Baltimore all those years ago. “The other night it occurred to me that you turned us as we fell. Your body was above me, and you pulled me tighter to yourself and twisted us, so you hit the water first. It did not occur to me then, as I was so enraptured to be in your embrace, even as we plummeted. You genuinely wished for death over being with me.” </p><p>“I did not wish for death over being with you!” Will bellowed. “I wished for death over becoming a monster! Do you know how it hurts me to be what I am when I am with you? You claw this-this <i>beast</i> out of me, and it feels so fucking good to exist that way. To finally not give a damn about the consequences of my actions and revel in the power of that explosive righteousness. Lathering my hands in the blood of those that do not deserve life. Maybe it’s my empathy reflecting all the darkness in you, but it doesn’t feel like a reflection when we are in the moment-” Will’s voice broke from disuse.</p><p>“What does it feel like?” Hannibal’s voice was rough and low, his breathing coming quicker than it was before.</p><p>Will laughed, the movement bringing a terrible ache to his side. “It feels like I’m finally home. But I’ll never be like you, Hannibal. I can’t kill people who are kind of <i>rude</i>. I would never kill someone the way we killed Dolarhyde because they took my fucking parking space. If I’m with you, though, I would. Eventually, maybe just to see that glint of pride in your eyes, the way you looked at me on that cliff, I would do it. And I would hate myself for it.”</p><p>Hannibal reached out gently; his warm palm cupped just under Will’s jaw. Without thought, Will leaned into the touch, and Hannibal looked devastated by it. “Don’t you understand, Will?” He asked quietly. “If you asked me to never kill again, I would. For you. If you asked me to take a thousand lives, I would. For you.”</p><p>Will groaned and shook his head, “I am not asking you to give up who you are.”</p><p>Hannibal shrugged while his fingers slid gently along the edge of Will’s jawline. “Then we learn to slay dragons, Will. If it pleases you, then I will become your vengeful knight. We will find other’s like Dolarhyde. There is no shortage of murderers or rapists in this world.”</p><p>Will laughed brokenly, “Clearly, there is not.”</p><p>“What else worries you?” Hannibal wondered.</p><p>This time Will took a careful step back, just out of Hannibal’s reach. “Your penchant for shattering the teacup in the heat of the moment.”</p><p>“I am not going to hurt you. If I wanted to, I would not have bothered to save your life in the first place.”</p><p>Will sat wearily on the edge of his bed in an attempt to ease the ache in his side. “You don’t want to right now, but let’s be honest, Dr. Lecter. You don’t exactly give me time to explain myself before you’re sticking a blade in me.”</p><p>Hannibal stood in silence for a moment, the only sound in the room being their gentle breathing. “I’ve thought of that night every single day since.”</p><p>A short burst of air escaped Will’s mouth in disbelief. “So you knew, then?”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyebrows drew in confusion as he regarded Will carefully. “Speak plainly, Will.”</p><p>Will licked his dry lips and dragged his fingers through his curls in frustration. “Did you know that I was going to leave with you when you gutted me?”</p><p>The sharp inhale that Hannibal made, coupled with a physical step back made it feel like Will had physically hit him. “You were turning me in,” Hannibal accused. “You and Uncle Jack, planning my capture while you lured me like the expert fisherman that you are. You knew precisely what bait to use, didn’t you? You betrayed me.”</p><p>“At one point, that’s exact what I was doing,” Will agreed. “When I told you I killed Freddie Lounds, I was still under the impression that I was going to stop you. But there was a point where the very idea of you being anywhere I wasn’t, whether that meant dead or in a cell, was abhorrent to me. I would tell Jack nothing when he asked, even though I could have had you arrested many times over. The only thing that motivated Jack into action that night was that the FBI was about to shut it all down because of the lack of evidence against you. Which was when I called you.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes were far away, looking out the small window that over-looked the wooded backyard. “They know,” Hannibal whispered.</p><p>“I would have gotten to you house sooner, but the FBI had surrounded my house for the murder of Randall Tier. I had to go through the woods to get out. I worried that you would leave without me but hoped that you would go rather than be caught. I knew where to find you, should we have gotten separated.”</p><p>Hannibal’s stillness was worrisome. “You said, ‘you were supposed to leave,’ when you saw me that night.”</p><p>“When you told me that you and Abigail couldn’t leave without me. I-,” Will gasped at the sharp sting of incredulity even after all this time. “I thought you were going to kiss me,” he laughed miserably.<br/>
</p><p>
There was a sharp inhale from Hannibal, as well as an aborted twitch of his fingers. “You stayed in my arms willingly.”</p><p>“Yes,” Will admitted. “But not to be gutted.”</p><p>“You thought I was going to kiss you, but instead I eviscerated you and killed Abigail in front of you.”</p><p>The tears Will felt on his face were not really a surprise, but the vulnerability he felt in that moment certainly was. “It’s insane to me that we used to talk as much as we did and yet still did not say anything relevant.”</p><p>The tiny huff of laughter from Hannibal dissipated some of the tension in the room. “Maybe, from now on, we make it a point to say what we mean. Allow me to begin?” His eyebrows rose with the question as he sat down gently on the bed, close enough that his shoulder brushed Will’s. He reached out with long, elegant fingers and traced the side of Will’s neck reverently, “I love you, Will.”</p><p>Will recoiled as though he had been slapped. He stood from the bed as quickly as he could, stumbling back a bit. “No,” he whispered.</p><p>Hannibal’s mouth fell open in surprise, “No you don’t believe I love you, or no you don’t love me?”</p><p>“Both!” Will exclaimed. “Do you know what I’ve realized because of Molly? Love is not like this. Whatever this is between us, it is not love, Hannibal.”</p><p>Will should maybe have felt anxious, what with the hardened expression Hannibal was wearing, but he was too angry to notice. “Do not mention her name to me.”</p><p>Will laughed without any humor, “Or what? You’ll kill her? You’ll slit her throat in front of me?” Will reached under his cast and pulled the gold band from his swollen finger. “Do you know what this means, Hannibal? Love is selfless. Real love is doing anything for the other person, even if it’s not what’s best for you. You’ve manipulated me. You’ve tried to kill me.” He paused, swallowing tightly around tears, “Abigail.”</p><p>Hannibal blinked, dissipating some glassiness on his eyes that Will thought looked suspiciously like tears. “Tell me, why then do you want to stay with me?”</p><p>“Because it feels good to be with you. I am more myself with you than with anyone else. The manipulation has to stop, though. You can’t lie to me and say it’s for my own good. You can’t keep molding me into someone that you’d prefer. I will be myself, and if you don’t like it then kill me or let me leave.”</p><p>Delicate eyebrows rose as though considering Will’s demands. “I swear to you that I will try. I want to earn your trust again, Will. I want you to come to me as a friend. I cannot promise that I will not make mistakes,” he warned.</p><p>Will sighed and sat back down on the edge of the bed, “Do you really not regret anything you’ve done to me? Because I can tell you honestly that I wish I’d have done things differently between us. I’m sorry, Hannibal. For hurting you and manipulating you. I want to start over.”</p><p>Hannibal sucked his teeth, “Regret is a pointless emotion. There is nothing to be done about the past. For what it’s worth, I forgive you. And I would like to start over, as well.”</p><p>His response was flippant enough to anger Will but voicing it would be completely pointless given the response. “Right,” he said with a bite of sarcasm. </p><p>A cloud of awkwardness hung around the two, neither knowing quite what to say until Hannibal broke the silence. “I need to remove your stitches today. I’ve also gotten you a cream for your face, it will help in lessening the appearance of the scar.”</p><p>Will nodded and stood up. “Thanks, sure.”</p><p>They made their way to the kitchen area, where Chiyoh made it a point to look anywhere but at Will. Hannibal left the room to get the equipment he would need to remove stitches, and Will decided it was time to mend the fence between himself and Hannibal’s… friend.</p><p>“Look,” he said quietly. “I’m… sorry for what I put you through. I am sorry for putting you in the position of having to protect Hannibal from me. I want you to know, though, that I have no intention of hurting him anymore. Okay?”</p><p>Chiyoh regarded him dryly. “I’ll still keep an eye on you,” she warned.</p><p>Will laughed, “What? No, ‘sorry for kissing you and shoving you off a moving train’? Not a peep about shooting me? Does no one in this house apologize for anything?”</p><p>Chiyoh’s eyes widened at something behind Will, and Will turned to find Hannibal standing with a small leather bag clenched tightly in his fist. “Leave us,” he demanded. </p><p>Without even a comment, Chiyoh grabbed the car keys and left the cabin. “What the hell was that about?” Will wondered.</p><p>Hannibal’s jaw was set tightly as he yanked a chair out from the small kitchen table. “Sit,” he ordered. Will’s eyebrows rose with defiance, and Hannibal sighed. “Please?” he amended.</p><p>Will rolled his eyes but sat down in the chair. Hannibal began rhythmically snipping and pulling stitches from his cheek, fingertips brushing gently against Will’s face. “Why are you angry? You know she tried to kill me a few times.”</p><p>Hannibal tipped Will’s face gently with his fingers, breath puffing against his temple as he worked. Having him close like this was too much for Will. He may not want a romantic relationship with the older man, but there had always been something that Will’s body just… noticed about him, even if he didn’t want to. </p><p>“You told me about the train,” Hannibal said eventually. “I did not know the two of you had been romantically involved.”</p><p>Will bit out a laugh, “She distracted me with a disappointing kiss before she shoved my ass off a moving train. There wasn’t anything even remotely romantic about it.”</p><p>Hannibal finished removing the last of the stitches on his cheek before smoothing a cream into the bristles of his beard. “Who could blame her?” he asked lowly. “Shirt, Will.”</p><p>Will awkwardly unbuttoned his shirt, noting that Hannibal did not offer help with it. “Who could blame her for kissing me or for shoving me off a train?”</p><p>Hannibal didn’t quite manage to hold back his laughter, eyes crinkling around the edges. “Must I choose one or the other?” He wondered while he pulled the shirt from Will’s shoulder just enough to reach the stitches. </p><p>Will laughed, his side aching with the reaction. “Ass,” he choked out. Hannibal’s eyes still held a touch of mirth while he tugged a stitch out with particular vengeance. “Ow,” Will complained, laughter still in his voice.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Getting to Finisterre, Spain was a chore. The flights were wonky, taking one flight under one alias, and the next under another. Will was terrified of being recognized, but their travels were uneventful.<br/>
He had never even heard of Finisterre, but Hannibal apparently owned quite a chunk of property there, under another alias, of course.</p><p>“You will love it, Will. We can get you some fishing gear once we settle in,” he promised.</p><p>Will was certainly feeling anxious. Chiyoh had left five days before them to get supplies in the house and have it ‘personalized,’ whatever that meant. Nothing specific to do aside from settling in.<br/>
</p><p>
The home was the only one on the long road that lead down off the quiet main street. Exotic woods rose up on both sides for at least a mile. The woods cleared out to a big single level Spanish villa. The opulence of it, despite it being a modest sized home, shocked Will. </p><p>Everything on the interior was done tastefully in rich mahoganies and beige stone. Crisp, white, walls created an airy, open space. The modern kitchen, complete with stainless appliances, featured a kitchen island that looked out into the open area of the living room and dining room. Large windows allowed light to filter in from seemingly everywhere. “How the hell do you afford stuff like this?” Will wondered.<br/>
</p><p>
Hannibal’s mouth twisted with distaste. “I will answer that, simply because you’re sharing your life with me now,” he scolded.</p><p>“Sorry,” Will said without a hint of sincerity. “was that<i> rude</i> of me, Doctor Lecter?”</p><p>The sass had the desired effect on Hannibal. Will watched with satisfaction as the older man’s face twitched with amusement. Will delighted with the knowledge that if anyone else spoke to Hannibal the way that he did, they’d be slow roasting in an oven by now. “I have quite a bit of money in foreign accounts,” Hannibal explained. “My family was quite wealthy, as I am sure you’ve read.”</p><p>Will blushed with the knowledge that Hannibal knew he had picked apart his very long, very fucked up, file. “I did,” he managed.</p><p>“I have many accounts that have not been touched in years. You and I can do as we please, indefinitely. I hope to eventually find work doing something I enjoy, of course. Idle hands are the devil’s playground, after-all. All of the accounts and properties are left to you, should something happen to me.”</p><p>Will had to grab the counter to keep from falling down. “Hannibal, no. I don’t want that. All of this,” Will waved his hand around the opulent kitchen, “is not why I am here with you.”</p><p>Hannibal’s face didn’t seem even slightly concerned over the mounting panic Will was experiencing. “Of course, it’s not. It’s merely a reassurance that you would be well financially should I die, one way or another. It eases my mind, Will.”</p><p>Will groaned and scrubbed his hand over his face, “When? When did you even have time to add me to all your damn accounts and whatever else?” Hannibal tapped a finger on the marble countertop, seemingly weighing a response, which irritated Will.  “Don’t <i>lie</i> to me, Hannibal.”</p><p>Hannibal’s face pinched with the comment, and he cleared his throat. “Just over four years ago, now.” </p><p>“Christ,” Will groaned, his vision swimming with white hot anxiety. “Right before we were supposed to run away together?”</p><p>Hannibal shrugged, seemingly non-plussed. “I never changed it. There was a part of me that liked the idea of your outraged indignation should something have happened to me. I could picture you in your plain house with your plain wife, trying your best to explain to her why a serial killer left you millions.”</p><p>Will’s jaw set stubbornly, as he tipped his head up to pin the older man with a glare. “I’d likely have refused it.”</p><p>Hannibal laughed. “Of that I have no doubt. Come, I’ll show you your room.”</p><p>The back of the house consisted of a glass wall separating the living area from an opulent study. To either side of the office were doors. One of which was apparently Will’s room, the other, he imagined, must be Hannibal’s.</p><p>The bedroom was absolutely gorgeous, which didn’t surprise Will. A king size bed with an ornate copper headboard took up the far wall. The accent wall behind it was painted an indigo blue. All the accents were in creams, blues, and copper metal. “Did you pick the colors for me?” Will asked quietly.</p><p>“I did. Do you like it?”</p><p>Will reached out gently to touch Hannibal’s wrist, fingers sliding softly for a moment before letting go. “Yes,” he said sincerely. “I do.” Hannibal preened under the admission, and Will felt bold. “I’d like to see your room.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes darted to Will, seemingly weighing the meaning of such a request. “Of course,” he said finally.</p><p>They left Will’s room and walked the length of the glass wall to the opposite door, and Will didn’t hesitate before making his way inside. “Huh,” Will said blandly. Crimson, beige, and whites were married cleanly with silver and black accents. It was a beautiful room, but Will felt his was warmer somehow? Maybe not quite the word. “You always pick blue when it comes to choosing things for me. I just wanted to see if there was any blue anywhere else in the house aside from my room.”</p><p>Will was shocked to see color creep up Hannibal’s face as he feigned indifference and adjusted his tie. “Your eyes change color, depending on what you wear, and where you are,” Hannibal admitted. “When you wear green or brown, they’re invariably somewhere in the range of hazel to moss green. When you wear red, they’re almost gray in color. They are lovely, no matter what color they look, honestly. When you wear blue, though,” Hannibal swallowed seemingly just at the thought. “They can range from the color of the sky to sapphires. Their clarity is endless. I painted my dining room cobalt after meeting you simply because I wanted to see what they’d look like in a room that specific shade. I wasn’t disappointed.”</p><p>Before Hannibal began speaking, Will had focused his empathy on the older man. He wasn’t exactly sure why he did, but his best excuse was that he wanted to catch the exact flavor of emotions that Hannibal may or may not feel for him. He expected something shallow, perhaps. Maybe something rooted only in physical attraction, but still, something self-serving in a sense.</p><p>What Will found instead was devastating. Honest, and absolutely <i> adoring</i> in Hannibal’s sincerity. Will never angled his empathy at Hannibal. He was always afraid of what he would find. False sentiments thinly disguised as best as he could imitate normal human emotions. Always somewhat certain that whatever Hannibal felt about anything was always just the older man simulating his emotions to fit the situation.</p><p>What was washing over Will right now was anything but feigned or false. Will had never felt anything quite like it from anyone, including Molly. Maybe he should not have disregarded Hannibal’s confession of love quite so quickly, but it was far too late for that. Instead, Will closed off his gift, cutting Hannibal’s emotions off from him swiftly. It took him a moment to find his voice after he’d almost drowned in all that devotion. “Y-you painted a room for my eyes, Hannibal?”</p><p>Hannibal, looking mildly ashamed, shrugged. “Two rooms, now. As I said, I wasn’t disappointed.”</p><p>Hannibal left Will to his own devices while he went to cook dinner. Once back in his room, Will felt curious enough and opened his closet. There were some suits; mostly all grays, slates, and navy blues. The button downs were almost entirely shades of blue with varying subtle prints, with a few ranging in white to gray. Will groaned as he opened his dressers to find tee shirts that undoubtedly cost more than any tee shirt Will had ever owned, all in varying shades of blues or grays. Opening more drawers, Will blushed to his hairline to realize even his underwear, boxers in Will’s normal preference, were all varying in shades of blue. </p><p>There were also shorts, slim fitting, but light and comfortable in shades of gray or beige. No jeans to speak of.</p><p>Will grabbed a pair of underwear, a deep blue tee shirt, and light gray shorts and made his way to his bathroom. “Really?” Will groaned. The entire bathroom was done in clean whites and grays, accented with sapphire blue towels and accessories. The standing shower was the only thing in the room that presented the color so boldly, tile rich in its vibrant hue from floor to ceiling. Will took a small plastic garbage bag from a bottom cabinet beside the small trash barrel and wrapped his cast as tightly as he could manage.</p><p>His shower was absolutely blissful, being the first one he had in a month. All his soaps were very light smelling, leaving hardly any scent on him after his shower. Will was surprised about that, given how Hannibal liked to smell him now and again. Standing in front of the mirror, Will decided his mangey beard was in desperate need of attention, and he wanted to get a better idea of what his new scar actually looked like. He found everything he needed in his vanity, awkwardly shaving with one hand and trying his best not to nick himself. His aftershave was lightly clean smelling, but everything else, right down to his deodorant, was mostly unscented. Apparently, Hannibal didn’t want him to smell like anything at all.</p><p>The tee shirt and shorts were both slim-fit, which made Will more uneasy than it should have. He knew he was a thin man, but these clothes did nothing to hide any of him. He could see the small muscle definition of his chest, and the jut of hip bones through the thin material of his shorts.</p><p>He felt completely naked, honestly. Maybe he shouldn’t have shaved his face after-all. All it did was highlight the scar on his cheek in a less than appealing way.</p><p>“Dinner, Will,” Hannibal called from the living area.</p><p>“Shit,” Will muttered to himself.</p><p>He emerged to Hannibal’s back to him in the kitchen as he effortlessly opened a bottle of wine. “I made a Bolognese with fresh pasta,” Hannibal offered as he popped the cork from the wine without turning to Will. “Something simple, given it’s our first nigh-“</p><p>Hannibal had turned and trailed off upon sight of Will. Under the intense scrutiny of his eyes, Will shrugged his shoulder, wrapping his good arm around his bad shoulder. “Thank you for all the clothes,” Will mumbled, clearing his throat a bit.</p><p>It took a moment for Hannibal’s tongue to unstick from the roof of his mouth. “They suit you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you clean shaven.” </p><p>Will shrugged as he sat at the table where a perfect portion of pasta was served elegantly with a few basil leaves for garnish. His fingers came up absently to trace the scar on his cheek, “I wanted to see how mangled I was. I wish I hadn’t.”</p><p>The sound of Hannibal’s swallow was audible in the quiet of the dining room. “A scar does not form on the dead. To earn one, you must live; you must fight. To fight for life causes wounds. Those wounds cause scars. And each scar tells a story, Will. You are no less magnificent now than you were before.”</p><p>Will chuckled, fingers still hovering over his cheek as he did so. “If scars are stories then I am a God damn <i>novel</i>,” he said wryly. </p><p>Hannibal smiled, eyes burning bright with something Will was afraid to name as he slid in the seat opposite Will at the table. “One I would take great pleasure in reading, preferably in braille.”</p><p>Will choked on his pasta, gulping inelegantly on his wine to prevent his demise. “Jesus,” he croaked. “Not really interested in thinly veiled innuendo anymore, are you?”</p><p>Will watched as he made a delicate bite of pasta, scraping the Bolognese primly onto the fork with a knife before taking a bite. “You’re here with me under no illusion about how I feel for you,” Hannibal remarked. </p><p>“How you<i> think</i> you feel about me,” Will corrected weakly while twirling more pasta on his fork.</p><p>Lips quirked in amusement as he sniffed at the wine in his glass. “Yes, how <i>you think</i> I think I feel about you.” He paused to take a mouthful of wine, savoring it in the way that Hannibal savored everything in his life. “Regardless of the semantics, I feel no reason to continue under the guise that I only regard you platonically.”</p><p>Will dropped his fork with a clang and finished chewing before speaking. “You don’t get to decide that,” he chided. “I’ve told you-“</p><p>“-You told me how<i> I</i> feel about you. Yes, I remember that clearly. Tell me, Will. Do you disregard my feelings because you believe what modern psychology believes about people like me? That I am incapable of honest feelings or emotions? Or is it that my feelings for you provoke discomfort?”</p><p>Will blushed at that one. “You don’t make me uncomfortable, Hannibal. I... I used to think you weren’t capable, but… I don’t anymore.”</p><p>“What changed?”</p><p>Will scratched absently at his chin, eyes averted to slightly behind Hannibal’s head. “I focused my ability on you during a conversation we were having about me. What I felt was, well, debilitating. It was raw, and honest. I’ve never felt anything like it in my life.”</p><p>“When was this?” Hannibal asked harshly. He apparently didn’t quite like being the focus of all that empathy. Will blushed harder and took a gulp of his wine. His eyes trailed even farther from Hannibal’s to focus on the wall leading into the study instead. “Look at me, Will.”</p><p>Will ducked his head a bit but refocused his eyes on Hannibal’s. The urge to look away was strong, given the hard expression on Hannibal’s albeit handsome face. “Two hours ago,” he admitted eventually.<br/>
Hannibal dropped his napkin down in his plate and moved to the counter. “So, you ask me very specifically to stop manipulating you, but yet here you are, with no remorse about doing it to me?”</p><p>Will frowned, at a complete loss for words. “What? In what way did I manipulate you?”</p><p>“How often do you do that? Dissect me with your gift?” Hannibal demanded.</p><p>Will stood up slowly, cradling his cast in his good arm because he forewent his sling. “I’ve never done it before,” he admitted quietly. “I generally don’t use it with anyone I am close to, with good reason. Usually all I get are waves of pity or, even worse, morbid curiosity. Sometimes a stray feeling that someone finds me attractive, but always with-with a sense of <i>regret</i> that comes with it. Molly had that. Not as much as others, but it was there. Love, desire, and a touch of disappointment that I am the way that I am.”</p><p>Hannibal’s face softened slightly, jaw loosening from the hard clench of his teeth. “Describe what you felt with me, please. All of it.”</p><p>“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Will said slowly.</p><p>Hannibal took Will’s plate and carried it to the counter before turning to him, one eyebrow cocked in interest. “I insist. Please.”</p><p>Will’s breathing had become labored thinking of it, eyes drifting off to recall the exact flavor of emotions that had rolled off Hannibal. “There were so many different ones, it was almost unbearable,” he recalled quietly, eyes searching through his memory of it. “I’d say longing was the most tangible, followed closely with-, with love. Pride? Or perhaps more accurate; satisfaction in my presence. Desire, but pooled low. There’s a lot of it, but it’s just the background noise from everything else. It’s- I don’t know how to describe it? Your desire for me is the root and flower of all the other emotions, I guess. Like you long for me because you desire me. You ache for me because I satisfy you. Why, I have no idea, but, uh. There’s no shame. Nothing even remotely like regret. I guess you were serious, you really don’t bother with that emotion. More astonishingly is that you felt no displeasure about who I am. Everything you felt is so massive. Maybe I shouldn’t have disregarded your admission to me that day.”</p><p>Will snapped out of the recollection, vaguely aware of how he maybe went into too much detail, judging by the stunned mortification on Hannibal’s face. “No, you shouldn’t have,” he agreed eventually.<br/></p>
<p>
Will nodded. “I’m sorry,” he offered quietly.</p><p>Hannibal looked away for a moment. Will surmised having your emotions read so invasively gave cause to a touch of vulnerability. “I sometimes make the terrible mistake of forgetting how extraordinary you are. How different you are from me; from anyone, for that matter. I made the mistake long ago of trying to mold you into something more like me. It would never be possible, and I am so thankful for it.”</p><p>Will shifted his feet awkwardly, “Did I go too far? Do you feel… regret for asking me?”</p><p>Hannibal walked over to the table cautiously, as though not to frighten a timid animal. His warm hand grasped the base of Will’s throat, pulling him forward until his lips pressed gently against Will’s temple. Will closed his eyes as he pulled away, terribly afraid that the only person in his life that had never regarded him with pity suddenly would. He felt Hannibal sniff gently at his hairline, nose working softly against Will’s jaw and the shell of his ear. The soft groan from Hannibal told him that pity was the furthest thing from his mind right now. “You didn’t go too far, Will. I don’t regret asking you. In fact, whenever you’re feeling vulnerable, or even when you are not, I encourage you to use your gift on me. I think what you’ll find will reassure you.”</p><p>Will rested his good hand gently and shakily against Hannibal’s sternum, fingers pressing gently to feel him. “I’ll do that.”</p><p>Hannibal took another greedy nose-full of his hairline and pulled back, his eyes dark as night. “Good,” he said absently.</p><p>Will swallowed thickly, acutely aware what scents were likely chumming the air around this specific shark at the moment. His arousal was obvious, given the slim cut of his shorts. “What do I smell like?” he asked, a note of embarrassment in his voice.</p><p>Hannibal took the question as an invitation to breathe in his particular vintage again. He stepped forward, Will’s arm still pressed between them as one of Hannibal’s hands reached behind him and gently grasped the curls at the nape of his neck. His other hand took his jaw and tipped it backwards tenderly, exposing his throat to Hannibal’s unrelenting scrutiny. The intensity of it made Will nervous, so he swallowed tightly, Adam’s apple bobbing with the action. Hannibal licked his lips at the sight of it but pressed his nose obscenely to it instead. He inhaled slowly, unhurriedly, taking his time to breathe in at the base of Will’s neck towards the nape of his hairline where his hair threatened to curl. The feel of Hannibal’s nose as well as the errant brush of his stubble against his skin, coupled with Hannibal’s clean scent was mind-numbingly good.</p><p>Will’s breathing was coming in rasps, his fingers no longer resting against Hannibal, but grasping. There was no way in the world that Hannibal didn’t notice his arousal poking him in the thigh. </p><p>Hannibal pulled away gently, almost licking the scent of him off his lips. “You shared your gift with me, so I will do the same,” he promised lowly. The deep timber of his voice urged a sigh from Will’s lips. “Your skin, naturally as you are now, smells like freshly fallen snow, almost. Sweet, mineral-like, and sharp, I suppose. Your hair bares almost the scent of a newborn; pure, clean. I know no other way to describe it, although I know that specific description possibly causes wariness. Your scent right <i>now</i>,” Hannibal swallowed thickly, pupils dilated in his honeyed eyes as they danced over Will’s face. “It smells of the air after a thunderstorm passes. Electric. Metallic, in a way, but organic and intoxicating. Your breath smells mostly of wine and pasta understandably, but even then I can scent the sweetness underneath. It makes my mouth water.”</p><p>“Christ,” Will groaned. Without any permission from his brain at all, his hips thrust pathetically against Hannibal’s thigh, eliciting a sharp hiss from the older man who instinctually tugged their bodies closer.</p><p>Hannibal nosed at Will’s throat again, this time taking a tiny taste with the tip of his tongue. “I want to know your scent everywhere. I want to know what every inch of your body smells like so I can describe it to a perfumer and drown myself in their creation. It wouldn’t be enough though, I don’t think.”</p><p>Will unclenched his hand from Hannibal’s shirt and slid his sweaty palm up to grip the nape of Hannibal’s neck, groaning at the feel of soft skin under his fingertips. “It wouldn’t be enough,” he continued, voice molten with yearning, “because I want to taste every inch in equal measure.”</p><p>Will licked his dry lips, eyes focusing on the needy pout of Hannibal’s mouth. He imagined it suckling at his skin, and his skin felt like it was on fire with want. Will threaded his fingers into Hannibal’s hair, bringing his mouth to the sharp line of his cheekbone and planting an open-mouthed kiss there. “So do it,” he whispered against his face.</p><p>This time it was Hannibal who involuntarily jerked his hips against Will in response, both men groaning at the feel of each other’s arousal. Hannibal took in a great, gasping breath, clearing his head enough to focus on Will without the cloud of need blinding him. “You don’t mean it,” he said softly.</p><p>Will chuckled darkly, groaning as he thrust against Hannibal more deliberately. “Oh, I mean it. <i>God</i>, do I mean it.”</p><p>“<i>Will</i>,” Hannibal pleaded, “please. Tell me to stop. Tell me not to do this.”</p><p>Will lunged for Hannibal’s mouth, and Hannibal opened for him eagerly. Tongues tasted and lips dragged sinfully against one another. Their breathing was harsh as they both clawed at one another, Will apologizing against Hannibal’s mouth as he struck him with his cast, forgotten in a moment of blind desperation to grab and hold.</p><p>Hannibal turned them so Will’s butt hit the edge of the table, while his hands lifted Will’s shirt up and off, taking a moment to be gentle with his shoulder and arm. Will grasped Hannibal’s tie and dragged the older man’s mouth back to his. Hannibal was an excellent kisser, not that Will was exactly surprised. His kisses were absolutely feral, all teeth and lapping tongue on a mission to taste Will and devour him entirely. He tasted sweet, like the wine and something else that Will distinctly catalogued as Hannibal.</p><p>Will slid his fingers into the Windsor knot of Hannibal’s tie, dragging it loose enough to pull over Hannibal’s head. “Take this <i>off</i>,” Will demanded, pulling uselessly at Hannibal’s shirt buttons.</p><p>Hannibal shook his head while unbuttoning Will’s shorts. “No,” he said simply.</p><p>Will sighed in frustration, tearing at the shirt and taking pride as the first 3 popped off and bounced across the table and floor. Hannibal snatched at Will’s wrist, eyes glinting in warning. “I said no. You told me to scent and taste you, and that is what I'm doing.”</p><p>Will’s eyebrows pinched in disbelief as Hannibal slid Will’s shorts and underwear off. Will suddenly felt ridiculously self-conscious, standing naked as a jay bird in the dining room while Hannibal looked him over. “At least take your shirt off. I feel ridiculous,” he admitted.</p><p>“You’re beautiful,” Hannibal sighed candidly, his head tipping appreciatively as his eyes slid over Will’s body. “If it eases you, I’ll do as you ask.” He unbuttoned the garment deftly and shucked it, allowing Will’s fingers to spread eagerly in the coarse hair on his defined chest.</p><p>Hannibal began scenting him again, taking his wrist and inhaling deeply, followed by a long lap of tongue. Hannibal moaned, suckling gently on the tender flesh of Will’s wrist, and Will was certain he would pass out if it continued at this pace. “On the table, Will. If I’m going to enjoy a feast, it’s always preferable to do so at the dining table.”</p><p>Will sat on the edge of the table, vaguely mortified to have his naked ass where people would eat. Hannibal stepped between his spread thighs a moment later, and it was quickly forgotten. Hannibal leaned in and kissed Will deeply, allowing his mouth to trail off to his cheek, then his jawline. He scented him again here, sighing contentedly as his teeth bit gently on the sharp edge of his jaw. He twisted his fingers into Will’s hair and tipped his head back, gliding down the line of his neck with his lips. Will felt dizzy as Hannibal began nuzzling and suckling at his Adam’s apple, delirious at the combination of rough stubble, silky lips, and wet tongue. Will could not resist him, his hand snaked from Hannibal’s hip to the front of his slacks where his erection tented proudly.</p><p>Will rubbed against the considerable weight of it with the palm of his hand, and Hannibal jerked into the touch, roughly suckling against his neck enough to bruise. “Will,” he reprimanded mildly.</p><p>He tongued down from the blossoming bruise under Will’s ear, biting gently at the tendon in his neck. “I adore your neck,” Hannibal murmured against his skin. “Without your beard, the cut of your jawline is addicting. The scent here,” he inhaled ravenously, “is maddening.”</p><p>Will groaned and palmed Hannibal harder through his pants. “Take these off, Hannibal, Christ,” he whined. </p><p>Hannibal laughed wickedly against his collarbone, biting, and suckling it gently. “I’ve already told you. No.”</p><p>He stood abruptly and pressed his palms against Will’s chest, easing him to lay flat against the tabletop, groins lining up deliciously as Hannibal leaned over him to work a nipple to a bud with his teeth and tongue. Will jerked his hips up, delighting in the unfamiliar weight of a cock against his own, even if it was through Hannibal’s pants. Hannibal scented all of the scarred wounds on his shoulder, kissing them gently before he dug his tongue into each lightly defined muscle of Will’s chest. Will was glistening with sweat, now, immensely looking forward to when that mouth decided to sample lower.</p><p>Hannibal laved at his belly button, scenting him here, as well. Will’s erection bobbed eagerly, and Hannibal smirked against the side of his ribs, biting gently at the skin above his hip bones.</p><p>“Please,” Will pleaded. “Hannibal, please.” </p><p>Hannibal groaned as he licked and suckled at the scar he had given Will all those years ago. His smile on his abdomen.</p><p>Hannibal’s face pinched as he regarded it, before he slid lower, and Will groaned in relief.</p><p>Whatever he was expecting, it was not for Hannibal to shove his nose against his cock and breath in like he was doing a line of coke. “What are you-“</p><p>Hannibal nuzzled around his balls, scenting him at the crease of his thighs. The moan coming from the older man was enough to make Will blush scarlet. “If I believed He listened, I would thank God for you. You were made for me, Will.”</p><p>With that, Hannibal swallowed him down, the flat of his tongue just obscenely savoring the precum leaking out. Will bucked up into the wet, soft, heat. “Fuck, Hannibal!” Hannibal ravished him with his mouth, the sound of it absolutely lewd in the echoing dining room. Letting go with an audible pop, he pulled Will off the table and turned him around abruptly, pressing him flat against the table, chest down.</p><p>Will jerked in response, confused about where all that lovely wet heat went and how to get it back.</p><p>Hannibal tutted, resting his groin against Will’s bare backside as he nuzzled against the nape of his neck, scenting gently, as though he weren’t just blowing his brains out a moment before.</p><p>Will rocked against the table, looking for any friction, and Hannibal stilled him with his hands. “You’ll finish in my mouth, or not at all. Do you understand?”</p><p>Will blushed hotly, somewhat in pain from his cast and shoulder digging into the hard table, not that he would dare voice it right now. He’d deal with it later.</p><p>Hannibal began again, scenting and licking his back, collecting beads of perspiration as he went. When he got to Will’s ass, he was certain Hannibal would turn him over and continue what he was doing earlier, but no.</p><p>Hannibal sniffed greedily along his ass cheek, Will’s face flaring in embarrassment as he did. “No, Hannibal, that’s- not <i>there</i>.”</p><p>Hannibal bit his ass gently, spreading his cheeks and throwing one of Will’s legs onto the tabletop for leverage. “Oh yes, dear Will. Especially here.”</p><p>Will’s spine arched as though he were possessed as Hannibal dove in with a lapping tongue. Will had never experienced anything like it in his life, and he was shocked at the arousal he felt at that soft, insistent tongue laving gently at his hole. Will collapsed to the table and raised his hips toward the sensation. Hannibal’s tongue was persistent and everywhere, smacking wetly against his opening as well as drifting to suckle on testicles. Will was writhing and struggling to get closer to it, so he pulled his other leg up onto the table and offered Hannibal a buffet. </p><p>Hannibal groaned at the display as Will balanced precariously on his good arm. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined you would open so beautifully to pleasure, never mind to seek it out so wantonly,” He drawled as his hands fondled his testicles and the base of his cock.  </p><p>Will groaned as Hannibal’s tongue began probing at his entrance again, the way he was spread open making it easy for his tongue to dart inside softly. Will’s hips began rocking uselessly. “I’m close, Hannibal.”</p><p>Hannibal smiled against his ass, “You’ll be close when I tell you to be.” With that, his tongue went from demanding and probing to gentle and light, backing off enough that Will lost the feeling a bit. “Fucking tease,” Will grunted, his hand clenching in frustration. </p><p>The throaty chuckle was enough that Will wanted to physically hurt him, but he refrained when that mouth latched over his hole and suckled, the sensation startling Will enough to thrust against that tormentable mouth. Hannibal kept Will’s body strung taut as a piano wire, right on the edge of snapping. When Will showed signs of being close, he backed off, gentle licks and nips easing him back into a haze of unrestrained desire. “Hannibal,” Will begged. “Please, please I have to.”</p><p>Hannibal suckled at a testicle, pulling it into his mouth and letting it go. “Have to<i> what</i>, Will?”</p><p>Will smacked his head against the table, muscles shaking from exertion. “Let me come, Hannibal. God, please. <i>Please</i>?”</p><p>Hannibal stood and grabbed Will’s legs, turning him gently so he laid on his back on the table. “Since you asked so beautifully.”</p><p>He kneeled and swallowed him whole, Will’s cock bumping against the back of Hannibal’s throat. Will shot up from the table, fingers winding into Hannibal’s hair as he fucked into his mouth. Hannibal’s eyes watched his the entire time as his hand wandered into his own pants and jerked himself in time with his mouth bobbing on Will’s cock. Will’s spine arched at the sight, so much more erotic than he could ever imagine it being. So much more intimate than he could have ever dreamed. </p><p>“H-hannibal, going to come,” he warned. </p><p>The approving hum around his cock was all it took. Will cried out as his hips bucked wildly into Hannibal’s mouth, coming so hard Will flopped back against the table, lungs feeling scorched for air. Hannibal lapped at him long enough that Will started to flinch against the over-stimulation, and Hannibal laughed against his thigh. </p><p>“Did you..?” Will asked drunkenly.</p><p>“I did,” Hannibal assured. “You taste exquisite. I’m in mourning over the loss of it already.”</p><p>“Gross,” Will laughed half-heartedly. “Come here so I can see.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes widened with surprise, but he came willingly. He kissed Will deeply, allowing him to taste himself all he wanted. </p><p>“Not as good as you seem to think it is,” he said sardonically. Hannibal smiled down at him with joyful disbelief. Will glanced up at the fist Hannibal was making off to the side of his head, and Hannibal’s eyes followed Will’s. </p><p>“I made a mess it would seem,” he remarked with a laugh. </p><p>Will reached out for Hannibal’s right hand; his long, delicate, fingers covered in streaks of his come from jerking himself off under the table. Will looked into Hannibal’s eyes meaningfully as he tasted his fingers, tongue gently licking and suckling the digits till they were significantly less sticky. </p><p>Hannibal watched him with awe, the fingers of his left hand sinking gently into Will’s curls. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but I love you. Savagely. Brutally. It’s devastating, Will.”</p><p>Will finished suckling on Hannibal’s index finger, licking his lips and swallowing. “I shouldn’t have denied your feelings before, and I’m sorry for that.”</p><p>Hannibal sighed and leaned in to kiss him softly, “It’s forgotten.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Will was drowning. The water around him dark and fathomless as he floated, waiting for death to come.</p><p>It was taking a long time, but Will knew it was eventually coming.</p><p>He looked around in the darkness, not surprised to see Hannibal floating just feet away.</p><p>If he were going to die, he may as well be with Hannibal when he did. </p><p>The tide took him to Hannibal immediately, and Will grasped his shirt to pull their floating bodies together. Will’s fingers trailed along his cheekbones, then slid down his throat. Hannibal wasn’t awake, which bothered Will. He hoped Hannibal hadn’t already died. Not when there was still so much unsaid between them.</p><p>Will held him tighter, the water around them turning red. Will pulled away, trying to see the cause of all the crimson-colored death surrounding them, inhaling water as he realized it was all coming from Hannibal’s stomach.</p><p>Will pressed his hands to the wound as liquid fire tore his throat, but the red grew darker, more murky, until Will couldn’t see him at all. The tide pulled him away abruptly, his fingers losing their grip on Hannibal so quickly that Will panicked, arms and legs thrashing as he tried to find him again.</p><p>Will shot off the bed with a scream, stumbling to his knees on his bedroom floor. Hannibal crashed into the room, coming to Will’s side on the floor quickly. “You’re alright, Will.” He soothed as he pulled Will against his body. His arms wrapped around Will’s sweaty shoulders, the grip somewhat constricting, but also grounding in a way that Will didn’t know he needed. </p><p>Will gasped on the floor, hauling Hannibal closer still with a desperate, clawing hand. “<i>Please</i>,” he begged, although he wasn’t sure for what.</p><p>“Shh,” Hannibal soothed, his arms maintaining their grip around Will’s body. “Come back to me, Will. Come on.”</p><p>“I can’t,” Will cried as he pressed his sweaty forehead against Hannibal’s shoulder. </p><p>“You can,” Hannibal assured him while one warm hand rubbed soothing circles against Will’s damp back. “Hear me, Will. Listen to my voice and come back from this darkness.” He took Will’s hand that was clenched in a death grip on his shoulder and slid it down so it rested against his heart. Will felt his heartbeat thumping steadily against his palm for a few minutes while his own heartrate slowed eventually to match.</p><p>“Am I sick again?” he asked exhaustedly. “Is it encephalitis?”</p><p>Hannibal pressed his nose to Will’s forehead, scenting him there gently while his hand felt his temple. “You aren’t sick, nor do you have a fever. It was a night terror, that’s all.”</p><p>Will chuckled, but the sound came out hollow and broken. “I’m so fucking tired.”</p><p>“I can imagine. It may help to talk about it.”</p><p>Will pressed closer to Hannibal, pushing his ear to his heart instead of his palm. “Don’t ever die. Please.”</p><p>Long fingers tucked into his sweaty curls and held him against Hannibal’s chest. “I’ve no intention of it. At least not imminently.”</p><p>The sound of Hannibal’s heartbeat was soothing. Enough so that Will’s eyelids drooped, darkness of sleep washing over him alluringly. “Stay, please.”</p><p>Hannibal hauled them up, glancing at Will’s sweaty bed before dragging him down the hall to Hannibal’s room. He pulled back the covers and laid Will down gently, then eased into bed on the other side. Will rolled over, resting his arm over Hannibal’s middle and laying his ear over his heart. Hannibal’s fingers slid into Will’s hair, scratching lightly at his scalp as Will drifted off to sleep. </p><p>Things between them were easier over the following few days. There was a lightness between them that had not existed since before Will had encephalitis, however their physical relationship did not continue. Their days were generally spent apart; Hannibal out with Chiyoh, who did most of their errands for them, while Will would spend most of his days outside in their backyard where there was a decently sized swimming pool. While Will couldn’t exactly go for a swim just yet, he still liked to dangle his feet in the water and enjoy the day until it got too hot to do so.</p><p>Their evenings had become shared in that they both found their way into the study, Hannibal drawing or reading, and Will perusing the bookshelves while talking just like they had long ago.<br/>
This night, Will sat on the white sofa, a glass of whiskey next to him on the coffee table, man handling a very-likely priceless bronze torso statue from the coffee table while Hannibal doodled in his little green notebook. Will sighed and stretched his shoulder gently before he spoke. “So, when are we going to talk about stuff that matters like we said we would?”</p><p>"When will you tell me about the nightmares that plague you?” Hannibal countered, not bothering to look up from his notebook.</p><p>“What I dream about is not something that matters. We’ve got much bigger fish to fry, don’t you think?”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes glanced up, pencil stilled against the pages, “What would you care to discuss?”</p><p>“Would you have really eaten my fucking brain, Hannibal?” Will asked with a lightness in his tone that belied the seriousness of the conversation.</p><p>“Language, Will,” Hannibal scolded. Will waited for an answer, and right before he asked the same question again, the older man sighed, “I very likely would have, yes.”</p><p>Will’s jaw clicked shut, lips pursed in irritation. Will had honestly thought Hannibal would never have actually done it. “Okay, we’ve already talked about how you don’t regret anything-“</p><p>“-I never said I do not regret anything. I simply do not linger in the moment, as there is nothing to be done to change it. You are here with me now, none of that matters anymore.”</p><p>A harsh laugh worked its way from Will’s throat, “It most certainly does matter!”</p><p>“It doesn’t,” Hannibal argued conclusively.</p><p>Will stood up, dropping the statue back to the coffee table as he did, which earned him a reproachful glare for his carelessness. He picked up his glass of whiskey and downed it in one mouthful before setting the glass down again and turning to Hannibal. “How would it have made you <i>feel</i> once I was dead and the both of us were full of my brains sautéed with garlic butter?”</p><p>Hannibal dropped the notebook and pencil with a tormented groan, delicate fingers coming up to swipe at his face. “Will, please. We have been getting along well, have we not?”</p><p>“Yes, splendidly. Shoving all our shit under the rug and pretending it doesn’t exist.”</p><p>“How would it have made <i>you</i> feel to stick that blade in me in the plaza? Would you have done it swiftly? A knife to my carotid artery, perhaps? Or would you have given my stomach a matching smile of its own?”</p><p>Will sat with a huff on the side of Hannibal’s desk and picked up the pencil Hannibal had been using to try and scratch at an itch he couldn’t reach under his cast. Hannibal watched him with sheer disapproval at the way he disregarded his things, but made no comment about it.</p><p>“I don’t think I was going to kill you,” Will admitted, throwing the pencil down on top of the notebook. “I wanted to <i>hurt</i> you, definitely. What I imagined was sticking it in your shoulder, weirdly enough. Like right here,” he pressed his fingertip into the joint at Hannibal’s shoulder, wiggling his fingertip against the flesh for emphasis. Will shrugged and bounced back to his feet, dragging fingertips across the desktop, then his face. “Kind of funny that Chiyoh shot me exactly where I was imagining stabbing you,” he mused, mouth quirked in a half-smile. Will wandered over to the bookshelf, his fingers brushing against the spines of several very old novels. “You’re not talking, should I be worried?”</p><p>Hannibal sucked his teeth, his expression that of the truly martyred. “I was merely doubting that you are able to sit still. Must you touch everything?”</p><p>“I think better when I’m moving,” he defended.</p><p>Hannibal closed his eyes to a count of five before opening them. “You had no intention of killing me.”</p><p>Will rubbed absently at his chin, eyes lingering on Hannibal’s own for a moment. “I am not sure I have <i>ever</i> intended to kill you. I’ve wanted to, but when you’d finally be there in front of me my resolve would go up in smoke. Your turn.”</p><p>Hannibal stood up; his expression guarded as he walked over to Will. His fingertips were like a ghost against his cheek, lingering feather-light against his scar. “Should we discuss how you met your <i>wife</i>?”</p><p>Will flinched as though he had been slapped and stepped back from Hannibal in shock. “We aren’t discussing her at all, actually.”</p><p>“I’d like to know how you met her, that’s all I’ve asked.”</p><p>Will picked up his empty glass and walked over to the small bar at the corner of the room, pouring himself another inch of whiskey and taking a sip. “I met her in Florida while I was on vacation. A year or so after you surrendered.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyebrows rose, “and you managed to make a connection with her after so brief a time?”</p><p>Will shrugged, placing his glass down on the bookcase so he could pull a novel out and flip through it. It wasn’t written in English, so Will set it back in its place with a sigh. “I was… different after you. More confident, I guess. She was flirting with me, and I recognized it for what it was, which I wasn’t exactly good at doing before you. I could look her in the eye without losing my thought. It wasn’t difficult to connect with her, for some reason.”</p><p>“How remorseful I feel for giving you that courage,” Hannibal lamented.</p><p>The huff of laughter from Will was sarcastic. “Remorse is just a different word for regret, Hannibal.”</p><p>“It is,” Hannibal agreed. </p><p>“So, you feel regret for giving me the courage to have Molly but not for hurting me enough to notice her in the first place? I don’t know how to tell you this without sounding like a tease, but you almost had me back then. I’m not entirely certain you don’t have me, now.”</p><p>“Being able to have you physically is not the same as having you, Will.”</p><p>Will blushed, turning away from him to hide it just a moment too late. “Is that why you haven’t… tried to touch me again since? Are you punishing me because I don’t quite feel the same way that you do?”</p><p>“Does it feel like punishment?” Hannibal wondered. “I don’t mean it to. I feel that while the experience was extremely gratifying there is something absent emotionally. I simply would like to wait and repair our damaged rapport before we venture further in our carnality. The only relief for me in the experience, I suppose, is finally knowing that you do yearn for me as I do you.”</p><p>“<i>Can</i> you be certain of that?” Will taunted, taking another mouthful of whiskey for courage. “How do you know that you weren’t just scratching an itch for me? I’ve gotten rather used to having a willing body next to me every night for the last two years. It’s been an adjustment making do without one.”</p><p>The raw expression on Hannibal's face was both hurt, and murderous. “It’s as though you’d like me to kill her.”</p><p>“You promised me you wouldn’t,” Will said, his mouth twisting sarcastically.</p><p>“I’m done with this conversation, as you have become cruel for the sake of being cruel. We can continue another night, Will, when you’ve had time to readjust your mindset.” Hannibal turned and walked away, towards the door leading out of the study.</p><p>“You never answered my question,” Will called out.</p><p>“As I said, we will continue another night,” Hannibal gritted out, still turned away from Will.</p><p>Will shook his head, “We won’t. Yet you wonder why my trust for you is where it is.”</p><p>“Goodnight, Will.”</p><p>Will said nothing as Hannibal retreated, mostly out of concern that something would be said that would invariably get him stabbed at the end of it. Will sighed and sat down heavily in Hannibal’s still-warm leather chair, pulling the little notebook over to himself. He felt some-what guilty, nosing through his things, but not guilty enough to put it down. </p><p>Will flipped through endless pages of neat script, none of it making a damn bit of sense to him. He recognized the jumble of equations from a similar notebook he looked at the day Hannibal surrendered.<br/>
There were equations, and random words written next to some. Mischa was a common one at the beginning of the notebook, while the end was specific dates and Will written in the byline. There were also a few instances where Abigail’s name was written.</p><p>Will recognized two of the dates; one was the day Abigail was killed and he had his smile carved out. The second date was the date of the brain-eating incident.</p><p>Feeling rather lost, Will popped open the laptop on the desk and googled a few of the equations, and what he found almost floored him.</p><p>Time travel. Or, more specifically, the ability to turn back time.</p><p>Why would Hannibal spend so much time with a notebook like this, Will wondered. There were sketches of Will between pages of equations, all of them mostly focused on Will’s face, his eyes. Clear expressions of anguish or pain, eyes shimmering, and mouth twisted distastefully. </p><p>Will’s breathing became labored as his empathy opened gently, the meaning behind such a notebook becoming clear.</p><p>Hannibal felt regret for things he had done. So much so that he wished he could turn back time to these specific events and prevent himself from doing them.</p><p>Will flipped the book shut and leaned back into the chair, suddenly feeling a little regret himself for some of the things he had said.</p><p>He stood abruptly and walked to Hannibal’s bedroom door before knocking and entering without being invited in. Hannibal was sitting on his bed with a book he was not reading, eyes far away as he walked in.</p><p>“I walked away because I did not wish for your company anymore, Will,” Hannibal warned.</p><p>Will lingered in the doorway and nodded, “I know, I just… I just want to tell you that I didn’t mean what I said to you. You weren’t just a warm body because I was <i>lonely</i>, Hannibal.” Will ducked his head, face flaming with the admission. “I wanted you specifically because you’re you. Even all those years ago, I… admired you, physically. Not just physically, obviously, but… there has always been an attraction. I used to startle away from it, because I’ve truly never noticed men, not in that way. I’ve always noticed you, though,” Will smirked, his fingers scratching idly at his chin. “But you and I have always hurtled over normal boundaries, in every sense. What happened between us happened because it was you, and your voice, and your hands, and your mouth. No one in this world could have filled that space.”</p><p>Hannibal’s face was pinched with suspicion as he set his book aside. “I promised you I wouldn’t kill her. There’s no need to backpedal now.”</p><p>Will groaned in the doorway, storming in and standing directly to the side of Hannibal’s bed as he reached into his cast and yanked his wedding band off, placing it meaningfully on Hannibal’s nightstand. “I said it to hurt you. I said it to make you <i>ache</i> the way your nonchalance about trying to kill me makes me ache. If anything, I used Molly to forget you, not the other way around. I’m sorry I said it, and I’m sorry I hurt you.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes never left the gold band, glinting in the lamplight. He reached out delicately and held it, index finger smoothing over the metal. “I picture you, on your wedding day,” Hannibal said slowly, voice like ice. “I wonder about your vows to her, and how brightly you might have smiled as she said, ‘I do,’” he grimaced at the thought of it. </p><p>Will leaned over the edge of the bed and pressed his lips to Hannibal’s. Hannibal allowed it, so Will tipped his face up with his right hand, licking into his mouth gently. Hannibal opened to him warily, allowing Will to take sweet sips of his mouth, nibbling gently at his plush bottom lip. He pulled away slowly, eyes locked with Hannibal’s own. “Nothing I’ve shared with her comes remotely close to what I’ve shared with you,” he admitted. </p><p>Hannibal leaned forward and nuzzled at Will’s throat, Will smiling at the feel of him taking a greedy lungful of his scent. “You told her you loved her.”</p><p>“I did,” Will agreed. “And look at all the hurt I’ve caused, saying three little words when I didn’t mean them. I won’t do that to anyone ever again.”</p><p>Hannibal groaned and kissed Will’s jaw with an open mouth. “You loved her,” he said accusingly.</p><p>Will pulled away and sat on the edge of the bed. “I loved the idea of her. I wanted a normal family. I thought if I could just have that, then I would eventually forget about you, but I never did. I’d sit in my workspace outside and use my gift to create after-images of you.” Will laughed, his smile wide and open thinking of it. “Even imaginary, you were always dressed impeccably. I’d do it when I needed advice on something, or if I was lonely. It’s… depressing to think about how lonely I felt, despite being surrounded by people who were supposed to be my family. There were so many times I had my cellphone out, ready to try and figure out how to schedule a visit with you. I’d always talk myself out of it.”</p><p>Hannibal bit back a smile, “Even so very far away, I managed to haunt you.”</p><p>“Haunting implies an unwelcomed feeling. All I ever felt was relief about seeing you. Even if you weren’t really there.”</p><p>“I’d visit you in my mind palace,” Hannibal confessed. “I don’t have your gift, though. My imagination never brought you to life perfectly. I spent so much time with you there, in my mind, that being with you again is overwhelming. I had forgotten how… intrusive you are. How acerbic your wit is. My mind painted you in all shades of gray, and having you here now is like looking into the sun.”<br/>
Will grinned, “I’m intrusive? Are you trying to say that you don’t like when I touch your things?”</p><p>The surprised laugh from Hannibal was a welcome one. “Not particularly,” he chuckled, his face growing somber. “But I would rather you be here, invading my space and destroying my things than have you be anywhere else. You cannot imagine the delight I feel, hearing you living in this house. Finding coffee cups in the sink, a curl of your hair in my study, your scent over every inch of that room because you have to incessantly touch everything you see; the most banal of events are the ones I treasure most dearly. Because it’s you.”</p><p>“Even when I wake you up pretty much every night from night terrors?” Will asked quietly.</p><p>“I wish you would decide to talk to me about them, but yes. Especially then, I am glad to have you near.”</p><p>Will leaned forward and kissed him again, chastely but sweetly. “I touch your things because I’m trying to weigh their significance to you. I want to know why you have everything you have. I want you to explain why you bought that ugly statue of a torso in your study,” Will said with a laugh.</p><p>“That’s simple. It looked like your torso,” Hannibal said unabashedly.</p><p>“Ugh!” Will laughed, standing from the bed while holding his hands up. “On that note,” he chuckled.</p><p>Hannibal’s smile was genuine as he looked Will carefully up and down. The scrutiny of it used to make Will uneasy, now he found the attention flattering.<br/>
“Goodnight, Will.”</p><p>Will nodded, loitering by the door. “Goodnight.”</p><p>Will walked to his room, already pulling a plan into motion.</p><p> </p><p>His house was on fire. </p><p>Will stood at the window of his home with Molly and Walter, awareness of the flames licking his back from inside. Hannibal was outside, watching him from the edge of the snow-covered yard.</p><p>Molly came up behind him, holding his waist, nuzzling his shoulder from behind. “Where are you going, sweet man? My sweet man,” she asked, her tone honeyed as she spoke.</p><p>“I have to get away,” he said simply as the walls of their bedroom burned behind him. “I have to go, Molly.”</p><p>“Where would you go? You belong here, now.” She said, wrapping her arms around his middle, holding him too tightly for comfort. Hannibal stepped forward, eyes bright as he watched Will.</p><p>“I don’t belong here,” he said, his tone becoming panicked as he tried to break free from Molly’s embrace. “Let go,” he pleaded as the window frame around him burned. </p><p>“You belong here,” she repeated as the walls crumbled around them, her grip on him unbreakable.</p><p>“Hannibal,” he called from the window, panic turning into mindless fear. He couldn’t die here like this. He couldn’t let Hannibal watch him burn in someone else’s arms.</p><p>Hannibal turned from him, his face resigned as he walked into the darkened forest. “No,” Will said desperately. “Please!” </p><p>Molly’s grip tightened and dragged him into the flames.</p><p>Will was screaming, his arms thrashing in his bed to break free from the grip of her arms. “<i>Will</i>!” a voice called, strong arms holding his thrashing ones to the bed. “Will, please. Wake up, you’re alright.”</p><p>Will’s eyes slammed open, his heart beating so hard he could feel it in his temples. His hands shook as he reached forward and clasped Hannibal to his absolutely soaked body, sobbing into his throat. Hannibal’s hands were soothing on his back as Will pressed his ear over his heart, unable to hear it over the loud gasps of his own breath and the pounding of his own heart. “I can’t hear you, I <i>can’t</i>,” Will said miserably, his voice broken from yelling.</p><p>“Shh,” Hannibal soothed while he pulled Will’s face up to look at him. “Breath with me. In through your nose, then slowly out through your mouth. Mirror me, please.”</p><p>He did as he was asked, his eyes fixed on Hannibal’s own. He copied Hannibal’s steady breathing, their breath puffing against one another’s faces as Will’s heartrate slowed. “Good,” Hannibal praised softly.</p><p>Will leaned forward and pressed his ear to Hannibal’s heart, listening to the steady staccato and instantly calming against his chest.</p><p>“Are you ready to discuss this, yet?” Hannibal asked, threading his fingers through Will’s embarrassingly sweaty hair. </p><p>“No,” Will said softly while his own fingers gripped Hannibal’s hip roughly. </p><p>“I’m about to need to buy you a new mattress. You’ve soaked this one through,” he said with a sigh. “Is it me, Will? Are you afraid of me?”</p><p>Will made a low sound of disapproval in his throat, dragging his ear tighter against Hannibal’s chest. “No,” he said quietly. “I’m afraid of losing you again, I think.”</p><p>He heard the rapid beat of Hannibal’s heart upon Will confessing his fears, before Hannibal pulled his feet into the wet sheets and wrapped his arms around Will’s body, holding him tight. “Where would I go?”</p><p>“You don’t have to stay,” Will said, contradicting his words by wrapping his sweaty arms around Hannibal’s waist and holding him tightly. The tension in his body relaxing as his head came to rest again over Hannibal’s heart. </p><p>Hannibal kissed his damp forehead, fingers still locked in his hair. “I’m quite comfortable, Will. Sleep.”</p><p>He didn't need to be told twice.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter Four</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning, Will woke up late, and alone. There was a relief in it, Will thought, a blush rising in his cheeks as he thought about just how needy he had become. In the light of day, he could rationalize that his nightmares weren’t real, and there was no reason to panic after they happened.</p><p>At night though, it felt like he was suffocating under the weight of them. Having Hannibal close seemed to be the only salve for that specific wound. </p><p>He crawled out of bed exhaustedly, taking a cold shower to invigorate his heavy limbs into moving while holding his cast ridden arm high above his head.</p><p>Leaving his room, he noted that Hannibal had stepped out for the day, most likely with Chiyoh. That worked to his advantage. He made himself a cup of strong coffee and a slice of toast before he called a cab to take him to a pharmacy, then to a clothes store. They had everything he needed, which really wasn’t all that much.</p><p>He was back home in two hours, which left him plenty of time to do a load of laundry to wash the new clothes scent out of the shirt and pants he purchased, as well as a load of his bedsheets which were filthy from his constant sweat-ridden nightmares. He hid the rest of his purchases away in his bathroom for later.</p><p>Hannibal came home shortly afterwards, arms full of groceries and fresh produce when Will met him in the kitchen. “Need help?” Will offered.</p><p>“If you’d like to chop that onion and pepper? I can begin braising the beef.”</p><p>Will nodded, taking the cutting board and knife from Hannibal. “Is it… beef?” Will asked carefully.</p><p>Hannibal stilled, eyes lingering on Will for a moment. “What if it wasn’t?”</p><p>Will swallowed, “I’d just want to know that you’d tell me what I’m eating when I’m eating it.”</p><p>Hannibal tilted his head in consideration. “You’d eat it if it weren’t beef?”</p><p>“I’ve eaten not beef plenty of times at this point.”</p><p>Hannibal chuckled, “It’s beef, Will. We are laying low right now, and I’ve told you that I don’t feel the urges that people in the FBI tend to believe I do.”</p><p>“I know that,” Will sighed. “Just… tell me the truth about what I’m eating. That’s all I ask.”</p><p>Hannibal watched him meaningfully, long fingers drumming against the island. “I promise, Will.”</p><p>After dinner, Will was standing at the kitchen island putting away dishes when Hannibal emerged with a handheld rotor saw in his hand.</p><p>Will stumbled back at the sight of it, slamming his hip into the counter. His heart was crashing in his chest, eyes fixed on a blade that looked almost like the one he had used on Will’s head all those years ago. “The fuck, Hannibal?”</p><p>“What is it?” Hannibal asked, confusion evident on his face. “Oh, no. No, Will,” he said softly, holding up a placating hand. “I’m taking your cast off. This is not for… this is for your cast. I’m sorry, it didn’t occur to me.”</p><p>Will’s eyes were wide on the device, mouth open to pull extra air into his lungs. “Christ,” he breathed.</p><p>Hannibal lowered the saw to the island, his posture gone rigid. “I despise that scent on you.”</p><p>Will’s heartrate slowed to normal before he spoke. “What scent?”</p><p>“Fear,” Hannibal gritted, jaw clenched tight. “I particularly hate when It’s me whose caused it.”</p><p>Will sighed, “It’s fine, Hannibal. I just… it was just a reaction.”</p><p>“Of course,” Hannibal said politely, some traces of rigidity still held in his shoulders. “Shall I?”</p><p>The very idea of having the bulky cast off was too good to pass up, so Will hoisted himself into the kitchen island seat and held the cast out to Hannibal. </p><p>Hannibal plugged it in and turned to Will. “Now this will cut the cast, but not your skin.” He turned it on and demonstrated by holding the device to his own palm. </p><p>Will nodded, and Hannibal began cutting the cast away.</p><p>His arm was skinny and pale underneath, and his wrist felt strange when he rolled it gently. “It will likely fatigue easily for a few days,” Hannibal explained. “If you have pain, refrain from doing whatever activity is causing it.”</p><p>Will smirked, “Thanks Doc.”</p><p>“My pleasure.”</p><p>Will glanced at the clock and noticed it was quarter of seven. Time to get moving. “I’m gonna go shower now that I have two arms,” he explained. “I’ll meet you in the study after?”</p><p>Hannibal smiled warmly. “Of course, Will.”</p><p>In the confines of his bathroom, he unwrapped the bar or Irish Spring soap, the one he preferred all those years ago. He laid out the red shirt that was just a touch too big for him, and the shapeless black pants that he knew now very likely did nothing for him. He didn’t expect to be free of the cast, which would be a bonus.</p><p>He stepped into the shower and lathered up, the cloying scent of soap permeating the room. Will was probably a little spoiled now, what with the lovely soaps and shampoos he was getting used to. He soaped up his hair and rinsed off.</p><p>Once toweled dry, he opened the bag from the pharmacy and pulled out the over-the-counter glasses he purchased, and the aftershave. The kind with the little boat on the bottle.</p><p>He dried his hair and slapped his cheeks with the aftershave, then he put the glasses on. He dressed in the red, un-ironed button down and tucked it into the ill-fitting black slacks before checking his watch.</p><p>7:25</p><p>He couldn’t be late.</p><p>He pulled socks on and slipped his feet into his sneakers, taking one last peek at himself in the mirror.</p><p>He grinned at his old reflection. He had turned back time, after-all.</p><p>He emerged from the bathroom and walked slowly to the study, taking a moment in the hall to open his empathy as much as he could. Hannibal’s back was to him as he read his novel. He knew the moment Hannibal scented him by the way the older man’s back tensed.</p><p>“Hello,” Will greeted formally as he walked into the room and sat on the sofa.</p><p>Hannibal’s eyebrows knitted in confusion as he looked at Will, who intentionally shifted on the couch uncomfortably.</p><p>“Why are you wearing that God-awful aftershave?” Hannibal wondered. Will felt the debilitating sense of nostalgia pouring off of him despite the wave of very-real revulsion at the scent.</p><p>Will pursed his lips. “I don’t come here at 7:30  to discuss my scent with you, Doctor Lecter.”</p><p>“What?” Hannibal’s mouth fell open charmingly as he took a moment to note the time, and Will contained his delight at this reaction.</p><p>“I’ve been thinking a lot about time travel,” Will said finally.</p><p>Realization dawned on Hannibal’s face; his eyes flicked quickly to the small green notebook at the corner of his desk. “Oh?” he asked inelegantly. </p><p>Embarrassment and indignation rolled off him in waves, and Will needed a second to gather his thoughts. “Specifically, if I could go back and change an event, would it be wise to do so?”</p><p>Hannibal recovered enough to pull his professional persona back. “Everything that has happened in our past has shaped who we are in the present. There is no knowing how tampering with an event in the past would negatively affect our future.” </p><p>There was no real emotion about this. It appeared when Hannibal was being professional, he genuinely remained impassive. “The idea is intriguing, though. Knowing what I know today, could I go back and prevent past horrors? Would I be able to persuade my past self to take a different course, knowing what I know today?”</p><p>Hannibal stayed silent for a moment, eyes glinting in the low light. Will could feel the walls going up, blocking him out. Hannibal knew what he was doing. “Will,” he began.</p><p>“It’s just,” Will cut him off from ending the illusion, “if you could go back and undo anything, prevent something terrible from happening. Would you? Would you want to risk the present to undo the past?”</p><p>Hannibal swallowed, eyes watching Will carefully as he let his guard down. The pure, unfiltered, anguish knocked the air out of him. It was more than guilt. It was heavier than regret. It was debilitating in its all-consuming blackness. Will sucked in air and tried to focus. “Would you do it for Mischa?” </p><p>Hannibal turned away from him, face slack with raw emotion. “Yes.”</p><p>The guilt he felt for her was crippling. “You couldn’t have saved her, Hannibal. You were just a little boy,” Will assured him.</p><p>Hannibal shook his head, “I should have done more. There was a moment when he was… hurting her. There was a fork on the table that I should have shoved in his throat. I considered it, in the moment, but… I could not bring myself to do it.”</p><p>Will struggled through the anguish he was feeling, “You were just a boy. You hadn’t learned violence, yet. It isn’t your fault.”</p><p>A few tears fell from Hannibal’s eyes, but he said nothing. Will tried to push on. “Would you do it for me?” He asked finally.</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes snapped to his, and the rawest form of regret washed over him. Regret, sorrow, and longing, all rolled and tumbled together in a chasm of aching endlessness. Will groaned through it, hands shaking as he rubbed his temples through the beginning of a migraine. “I wish that I could go back for you, most of all.” Hannibal confessed. “You asked me how I would have felt, sitting with your corpse, my belly full of your flesh. I would have hated myself for it. There isn’t a word to describe the enormity of the grief I would have felt, and it would eventually have killed me, one way or another, knowing that I had done it to you. If I could go back, I would make it so the only feeling you would have from my hands is pleasure. I would have it so that you never backed away from me in fear. I would undo all of it, Will.”</p><p>Honesty and love. The love was astounding. Will felt he were basking in it like heat from the sun. “You can’t,” Will whispered. “If you changed it, I wouldn’t know what it felt like to kill Dolarhyde with you. I wouldn’t be who I am, now. We’ve lost time together, yes, but we’ve learned from our mistakes. Haven’t we?”</p><p>Hannibal sighed, “I would rather die than hurt you anymore, Will.” The honesty of the statement caused a stab of pain behind his eyes. </p><p>Will closed off his gift, tearing the glasses off of his face as he did. His headache throbbed terribly behind his eyes. Hannibal stood up fluidly and reached into his desk before walking to the sofa. He popped the small bottle of aspirin for Will and gave him two.</p><p>“Thank you,” Will said quietly before he dry-swallowed them.</p><p>Hannibal sat numbly on the couch, neither saying anything for some time. Will rubbed at his temples, eyes closed as the worst of the ache passed. He turned to find Hannibal watching him warily, eyes uncertain. “<i>Now</i> I see you,” Will whispered. “Now I know you.”</p><p>Hannibal jutted his jaw, eyes glancing away carefully. “Do you want me, regardless?”</p><p>Will swallowed tightly against the clot of tears in his throat, “Yes.”</p><p>Hannibal leaned forward slowly, his long fingers finding their home against Will’s jawline, and brought their mouths together. Will turned into the kiss, his fingers weaving up to hold Hannibal’s neck as their tongues brushed gently. Hannibal pulled away, a surprised laugh bursting from his throat. “The aftershave is truly abhorrent.”</p><p>Will laughed openly, an honest-to-God, full belly laugh, and Hannibal’s eyes took him in with adoration evident on his lovely face. Will felt crushed by how devastatingly handsome he was. He turned abruptly, swinging his thigh over Hannibal’s, and pulled himself into his lap. </p><p>The abrupt change in seating arrangements surprised Hannibal, who was clearly unaccustomed to an evening ending with a lapful of Will. Will inched his thighs wider, bringing their crotches together perfectly. Both sighed at the feel of it, Will mildly surprised that he was already hard. </p><p>Hannibal pulled Will’s hips against his more fully, their mouths crashing together desperately. Having two hands definitely helped Will, who ripped Hannibal’s button down cleanly. Will delighted in the sound of buttons bouncing to the floor and Hannibal groaned, “It seems you’re hell bent on demolishing my wardrobe,” he commented while he did the same to Will’s shirt. They both yanked the destroyed garments off their shoulders, sighing at the skin-to-skin contact. Will tipped Hannibal’s head back, suckling a bruise at the base of his throat, which earned him a rasp of a groan in response.</p><p>“What would you like, Hannibal?” Will asked, tweaking a nipple gently and rolling his hips.</p><p>Hannibal sighed against Will’s throat, nipping at the flesh with teeth and tongue. “I want you in your bedroom,” Hannibal admitted. “I want to see you against those blue sheets.”</p><p>Will chuckled, head falling back while he continued to roll his hips, “Of course you do. Shall we?” </p><p>Hannibal growled and lifted them both from the couch, surprising Will, who clung to him with a laugh as Hannibal carried him into his bedroom. “I forget sometimes how strong you are,” he sighed as he was dropped on the edge of his bed. Hannibal tore back the comforter, revealing the clean indigo sheets underneath. He pulled away from Will, standing between his thighs and tearing the button from Will’s pants, yanking Will’s shoes and socks off. Will hauled his naked body up the bed, keeping his eyes on Hannibal’s as he sprawled against the sheets, arching his back invitingly as he wrapped his fingers around his cock and pumped it with his fist. </p><p>Hannibal’s breathing was labored as he watched, and Will chewed his bottom lip to keep from smiling at the sight of Hannibal looking so wrecked.</p><p>Hannibal undid his pants and let them fall, kicking his shoes and socks off with it. Will groaned at the sight of him. While Will felt his own physique was nothing extraordinary, Hannibal was exquisite. His arms were gently corded with muscle, that led to a well-defined chest. He had the slightest definition of abs, leading to a slender waist. He had the slightest bit of softness around his middle, the vulnerability of it made Will’s mouth water just looking at it. The only bit of Hannibal that could ever be described as soft lay just above such a long, thick, cock. </p><p>Tightening his fist on his own cock, Will spread his thighs in invitation. Hannibal growled as he crawled up the bed, taking Will’s ankle to scent and lick there. Will chuckled at the attention to even the most basic of his anatomy, and Hannibal crawled up and stilled Will’s wrist, removing it from his dick and replacing it with his own. Hannibal licked his cock with the flat of his tongue, swirling it roughly around the head before jamming the tip of his tongue into the tip of Will’s length.</p><p>Will arched off the bed, hands scrambling in the sheets and Hannibal’s hair. “Fuck!” he cried, as Hannibal swallowed him whole. Will reveled in the pleasure of Hannibal’s mouth and tongue, struggling to find his voice. “Hannibal?” he asked quietly. “Wait, stop.”</p><p>Obediently, Hannibal pulled away, eyes glinting with concern, “Is something wrong?”</p><p>Will shook his head, a huff of amusement working it’s way from his throat, “Not even close. I just- if we keep up like this it’ll be over in a minute. I’d really like to return the favor if you don’t mind.”<br/>
Hannibal sucked at the skin of Will’s hipbone, blooming a bruise in his mouth’s wake. “Have you ever used your mouth to bring a man pleasure before?”</p><p>“No,” Will laughed. “But I think I understand the mechanics enough to figure it out.”</p><p>“I’m glad to hear you haven’t,” Hannibal mused while nuzzling Will’s smile on his abdomen with his nose. “It would be a chore to have to track down and slaughter whomever it was.”</p><p>Will tutted, “So possessive, Doctor Lecter. Should I threaten to track down and kill everyone that you’ve tasted?”</p><p>Hannibal chuckled, “That list wouldn’t include any men, Will.”</p><p>Will’s eyebrows rose in surprise as he trailed a gentle finger along a sharp cheekbone. “That’s… but you’re so good at it.”</p><p>“It has never been much of a secret that I want to devour you. There is not one bit of your body or mind that I find even remotely distasteful,” Hannibal admitted while moving up Will’s body, their cocks pressing together delightfully.</p><p>“How long,” Will moaned as Hannibal thrust gently against him. “How long have you wanted me like this?”</p><p>“Since day one, Will.”</p><p>“No,” Will laughed, leaning up to kiss him gently. “I was so scruffy and rude. Not your type at all.”</p><p>Hannibal chased his lips, mouthing at his jawline as he did. “To be perfectly frank, you’re still quite rude. If you were anyone else, that mouth would have gotten you into a lot of trouble by now.”</p><p>“You don’t say,” Will remarked dryly. He lifted his leg to Hannibal’s hip, wrapping it around his waist. Using his arms, he quickly threw his weight up, twisting them so he was straddling Hannibal’s waist while the other man lay in the bed with a note of disbelief on his face. “Not that I don’t just love our little chat, Doctor, but we were in the middle of something.”</p><p>Will angled his hips downward, dragging his cock against Hannibal’s and marveling at the sight of it. He leaned back and wrapped his fingers around the both of them the best he could, squeezing gently as he pumped experimentally. Both of them moaned at the feel of it, brown and blue eyes raking over each other’s naked flesh.</p><p>Will let them go, so he could press his fingertips against Hannibal’s chest and stomach, admiring the give of muscle and skin against his fingertips. “You’re such a <i>gorgeous</i> man,” he said conversationally, tone admiring. “I don’t- I’ve never really noticed another man, before. Yet I’ve always seen you.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes were shining with wonder as he looked up at Will, his hands gripping Will’s hips as he urged them against his. “You were made for me, Will. If I were to sketch my ideal mate without even knowing you, I think I would draw your shape.”</p><p>“So charming,” Will drawled, sighing as he pressed his hips in search of relief. “It’s a good thing I love bacon, seeing as how I ended up with such a ham.”</p><p>Hannibal laughed; eyes bright with amusement at the intentional southern lilt of Will’s voice. “Delightful creature,” he praised.</p><p>Will leaned forward to mouth at Hannibal’s throat, breathing in the scent of clean aftershave and notes of cedar. Will scented him down his chest, delighting in the roughness of the chest hair against his cheek and the smell of him under his nose. He tongued experimentally against Hannibal’s nipple, then trailed down to suck bruises against ribs and abdominal muscles. For a moment, Will understood Hannibal’s desire to devour another person.</p><p>When he got further down, Will had a flash of panic at the prospect of the huge, flushed, cock twitching under his unyielding eyes. It was just Hannibal, he reasoned, eyes trailing up to find raw desire on the older man’s face. He wrapped his fingers around the throbbing heat of it, angling it towards his mouth as he watched Hannibal’s face.</p><p>He lapped experimentally at the head, noting the familiar tang he had licked from Hannibal’s fingers just a few days ago. The texture of it was silken against it tongue, and suddenly all anxiety he was feeling melted into something else.</p><p>He wrapped his lips around the head, while his tongue swirled around it gently. Hannibal’s eyes were penetrating as he watched him, mouth falling open to pull more air into his lungs. </p><p>Covering his teeth with his lips, he hollowed out his cheeks and sunk down, creating a tight suction and bobbed roughly, causing the older man to jerk his hips in surprise. Will pulled away a bit at the feel of his cock nudging the back of his throat, then continued to alternate between swallowing him whole and laving softly at the head. He used his hands to cup and roll the tight sac underneath, and Will almost grinned at the ruined man under him.</p><p>He was doing this to Hannibal. He had brought this powerful, dangerous, elegant, man to a writhing, sweaty, mess.</p><p>The feeling was a heady one.</p><p>“Will,” Hannibal begged. “I’m very close.”</p><p>Will pulled off of him with a lurid pop. “Guess I’m doing it right, then,” he chuckled, before swallowing him again, sucking greedily.</p><p>Hannibal arched his back, his long fingers coming to twist gently in Will’s curls as his hips jerked up, and then he was coming.</p><p>Thick, hot spurts hit the back of Will’s throat, and he pulled up towards the head, swallowing as quickly as he could manage before another came. The sensation was not precisely pleasant, but strangely satisfying in its own way. He continued to suck gently, bobbing and licking even while Hannibal’s knees drew up, trying his best to escape the over-stimulation. Will wasn’t ready to stop, though, so he sank down to the root of it, letting Hannibal’s cock nestle against the back of his throat while he rolled his balls in his fingertips.</p><p>Hannibal’s body was convulsing under him, his gentle fingertips twisting in his hair almost painfully. “<i>Will</i>,” he bellowed, and a single spurt more coated Will’s throat. Will let him go gently while Hannibal sucked in great gasps of air, his face and chest flushed with pleasure. </p><p>Will licked his lips lewdly, eyes dark as Hannibal watched him with a look of sheer wonderment on his face. “You’ve never done that before? I’m inclined to not believe you.”</p><p>Will chuckled, crawling up Hannibal’s body to slant their mouths together, tongue lapping deeply to let him taste himself. Hannibal moaned into Will’s mouth, almost sobbing with over-stimulation as Will canted his hips against Hannibal’s again.</p><p>“Can you go again?” Will asked sinfully, hips undulating against Hannibal’s semi-flaccid cock. </p><p>“I’m not twenty years old, Will.” </p><p>He was never one to back down from a challenge. He leaned back, sitting squarely over Hannibal’s cock so it nestled delightfully against his ass. Will arched his back as his wrapped his fingers around his own cock, eyes darkened as he watched Hannibal enjoy the view. He rested one hand behind him against Hannibal’s thigh, while his other jerked himself, rolling his hips wantonly at the same time.<br/>
Hannibal groaned, tipping his head back to take in the show. “You’ll be the death of me yet,” he rasped.</p><p>It was only a few minutes later when the semi-hard cock under him stiffened again, pressing delightfully against his perineum. “There we go,” Will smiled.</p><p>Hannibal chuckled, “I very likely won’t be able to finish.”</p><p>“Oh, ye of so little faith,” Will bemoaned. He leaned forward and let go of his aching cock to bring their lips together briefly. “I’d like you to fuck me, Hannibal. Please.”</p><p>Hannibal flinched, mouth drawing into a tight line. “I don’t like how you worded that, Will.”</p><p>Will arched against him as Hannibal’s fingertips traced the notches of his spine reverently. “Fine,” he sassed. “I’d like for you to show me, using this,” he reached under himself to wrap his fingers around Hannibal’s length for emphasis. “Show me, using only this how much you love me.”</p><p>“I can’t,” Hannibal said, sounding somewhat contrite. “We don’t have anything to ease the way.”</p><p>The sound of frustration that erupted from Will’s throat was needy. “Seriously? There must be something we could use.”</p><p>Hannibal’s mouth quirked, “We could take a shower. Soap would work.”</p><p>Will laughed over him, smiling brightly, “You’ve been dying for a reason to get this aftershave off of me.”</p><p>“The thought did cross my mind, yes.”</p><p>Will climbed off the bed, stretching his back and shoulder gently as he padded to the bathroom door. “You coming?”</p><p>Hannibal dropped his head back to the pillows, fingertips scratching his chest absently. “I’m not certain we are ready for this yet,” he said quietly.</p><p>“Just because our first time won’t be in your lovely sheets with candles and wine doesn’t mean it won’t be perfect. Besides, I’d really like to soap you up. Please?”</p><p>“You know me far better than I think you do,” Hannibal lamented. He rolled off the bed and joined Will in the bathroom. </p><p>Once the shower was on and warm, Will stepped in, dragging Hannibal with him. He brought their mouths together, delighting in the way the water made their bodies slip against one another’s. Hannibal reached out to gather the bar soap he preferred on Will, lathering his hands and soaping up Will’s stubble and throat, earning him a chuckle for it in response.<br/>
“Throw that bottle out immediately, please.”</p><p>Will groaned as he rinsed off, while Hannibal’s hands continued soaping his chest and then his cock. Hannibal pressed against him fully; slippery, soapy, hands wrapping around his waist and grasping his ass, index finger slipping gently between his cheeks.</p><p>Will arched against it, mouths sliding against one another sloppily. Taking a bottle of shower gel, Hannibal drizzled it into his palm, before pressing his fingers between Will’s cheeks, probing gently against his entrance. “Are you certain you want this, Will?” Hannibal asked. “If you wanted, you could penetrate me instead. It doesn’t have to be you.”</p><p>Will’s brain was a fog of lust at the very thought, but it wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t what he imagined. “You’d let me?”</p><p>“Of course,” Hannibal agreed. “Anything, Will.”</p><p>“I want you to press your fingers inside me, Hannibal. Get me ready for you, please.”</p><p>Hannibal’s hips jerked against him at his words, his index finger pressing inside softly. “Anything,” he repeated.</p><p>The mild stretch of a single finger was not painful, but when Hannibal added a second, gently scissoring him open, it became mildly uncomfortable. Hannibal added more gel, mouthing at Will’s jawline while his fingers curled gently inside of him, probing around before hitting a spot that made Will’s knees give out. “Fuck!” Will cried, “What!”</p><p>“Your prostate,” Hannibal offered mildly, holding Will up while he added another finger, the stretch and burn just background noise as he wiggled against Hannibal, hoping to get him to find that spot again, which he did with ease.</p><p>When Will was finally thrusting against his fingers, Hannibal stilled them. “I think you’re ready, Will.”</p><p>“Thank God,” he sobbed. Hannibal turned him so he was braced against the wall of the shower, palms pressed flat against the blue stone. He arched his spine and widened his stance, and Hannibal took the invitation, easing his soaped cock to rest against Will’s opening. The both of them took a moment, Hannibal pulling Will’s wet curls from the side of his face, tipping his jaw back so he could suckle at Will’s throat. </p><p>“Beautiful,” Hannibal praised, as he pressed his cock gently just past the first ring of muscle.</p><p>Will tensed up, the breach stretching him more than he thought it would. Hannibal sensed his discomfort, and ran his fingers gently down his sides, wrapping around his waist to pull at his cock.<br/>
Will’s head fell back against Hannibal’s shoulder, and Hannibal took his other hand and reached around to stroke Will’s throat, Will’s own hand moving up to lace his fingers with Hannibal’s.</p><p>Hannibal rocked in a little further, the stretch turning into a burn, but still not terribly painful. Will focused instead on the long fingers around his cock, and the soft mouth sucking his jaw.<br/>
Will rocked back gently, forcing Hannibal in a bit more, both of them hissing at the sensation. Hannibal let go of his cock, trapping it between his abdomen and his heavy palm as he slid in the rest of the way.</p><p>Hannibal gave him a moment to adjust to the intrusion, both panting in the steam of the shower. “<i>Hannibal</i>,” Will sighed, reveling in the tremendous feeling of being filled this way.<br/>
“My Will,” Hannibal whispered against his neck before he began to thrust, gently.</p><p>Will moaned, back arching against the friction. He reached back, pulling Hannibal’s face to his, sharing a kiss that was mostly tongue over Will’s shoulder. Hannibal adjusted his stance, and tipped Will’s hips forward a bit, before driving forward and nailing the spot inside Will that made him see stars.</p><p>Will’s head fell back as Hannibal thrust expertly against the spot, over and over. Will couldn’t breathe, as the older man took his cock back in his hand, pumping in time with his hips.</p><p>Will felt like a raw, exposed, nerve. There wasn’t a single inch of his body that didn’t feel covered in Hannibal. Pleasure rocked him, and his endless moans were aching his throat, which was also being lavished with attention from Hannibal’s mouth. Will took Hannibal’s spare arm and wrapped it around his chest, pressing his palm flat against his heart and holding it there.</p><p>Hannibal’s hips and wrist picked up speed, skin slapping wetly. “Hannibal,” Will moaned. “I’m going to, I am close.”</p><p>Hannibal buried himself deeply, grinding relentlessly at the spot inside, and Will came with a yell, hips bucking wildly as he did.</p><p>Hannibal chuckled against his throat, nipping roughly at the skin under his jaw. “Consider this reciprocity for earlier,” Hannibal warned. </p><p>With that, Hannibal slammed into the spot inside him roughly, Will crying out from severe over-stimulation. He drilled the spot, hips snapping quickly, giving no time to recover from the sensation. Hannibal’s hand wrapped around his aching cock again, jerking him quickly, and Will wiggled helplessly against the onslaught.</p><p>“Oh God,” Will moaned. “Please, Hannibal I <i>can’t</i>.”</p><p>Hannibal paid him no mind, instead he held him closer, tipping his head back as he lost himself in the feel of Will’s body.</p><p>The rapid pace, unrelentingly maddening, grew more fevered as Hannibal worked his way to completion. Will’s body was protesting the oncoming second orgasm, his balls drawn up tightly and aching as he came again, yell echoing in the small shower. Hannibal thrust deeply twice more, before Will felt him empty himself deep inside. </p><p>Hannibal held him up, as his legs were doing their best to give out, kissing the side of his face gently. “Now we’re even,” Hannibal panted against his cheek.</p><p>Will chuckled tiredly, nuzzling his nose against Hannibal’s temple. “Even Steven.”</p><p>Hannibal smiled, pulling out gently and turning Will to face him. “Did I hurt you? I lost myself for a moment,” he worried.</p><p>“No,” Will breathed, mind still foggy from the pleasure. “I’m sore, but you didn’t hurt me at all.”</p><p>“Good,” Hannibal’s face cleared a bit with the confirmation. He soaped them both up once more, cleaning their skin in the rapidly cooling water before rinsing them both quickly. Will’s eyelids were drooping, and Hannibal smiled at the sight of it. “I’ve often wondered if you’d be the type to talk after intimacy. I suppose you are not.”</p><p>“It’s not fair to assume that right now. Not after we just got the gold medal in the Olympic sexcapades.”</p><p>Hannibal chuckled while he dried Will off with a fluffy, deep blue towel. When Will was dry enough, Hannibal began toweling himself, and Will stumbled to his bed, sprawling under the sheets.<br/>
Hannibal emerged and watched him, a faint smile on his face as he did. “I hope you’ll stay here tonight,” Will drawled, turning his face to look at Hannibal in the bathroom doorway. </p><p>“If that’s what you want, I would like to, yes.”</p><p>“Good. Come on,” Will sighed, tapping the empty side of the bed. </p><p>Hannibal crawled over Will, tucking up against him and holding his back to his bare chest. Will lifted his head so Hannibal could tuck his arm under his neck, bringing their bodies flush against one another. Hannibal took a moment to scent Will’s damp hair, then behind his ear. “You’re everything to me, Will. Everything.”</p><p>Will clasped Hannibal’s hand to his mouth, kissing his long fingers softly. “I’m sorry I wasted so much of our time. We could have had this years ago,” he mourned.</p><p>“I am too thankful to have you now to lament not having you then,” Hannibal said lowly, mouth nuzzling Will’s temple. </p><p>“Mm,” Will said sleepily. “Maybe, if you want, this could be <i>our</i> room? If you want?”</p><p>Hannibal stilled against him, “I don’t care where I am, Will. So long as it’s with you.”</p><p>Will turned his head and Hannibal met him for kiss when Will pulled away to look at him seriously. “Ham,” he drawled, earning him another laugh.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By the time Will woke up, Hannibal was already up and gone from the room. Will sighed, not exactly surprised, as Hannibal was a very early riser. Will was faintly amazed that he managed to sleep through the night without a nightmare, or even the ghost of one causing a night sweat. Maybe mind-blowingly great sex could do that, he wondered.</p>
<p>He got up and made his bed, before dragging a pair of navy pajama pants on to go in search of coffee.</p>
<p>When he walked into the kitchen, he was very surprised to find Hannibal there, dressed rather comfortably in a dark gray V-neck tee shirt and crimson pajama pants. Will’s brain just about short circuit at the sight of Hannibal’s strong arms, testing the limits of a rather tight-fitting tee. The V-neck displayed all of the marks Will had left with his mouth, and the sight of it made Will’s mouth water.</p>
<p>Without thought, Will walked up behind him and wrapped his arms around his narrow waist, nuzzling between his broad shoulder blades. Unable to help himself, he trailed his fingers up, smoothing over soft forearms, and slid his fingers under the sleeves of the tee, tracing the muscles underneath.</p>
<p>Hannibal huffed in disbelief, pausing his breakfast making to allow Will his attentions. “Good morning,” Will mumbled. “You’re wearing a tee shirt.”</p>
<p>Hannibal chuckled, the sound rumbling through his back. “Nothing escapes you, dear Will.”</p>
<p>“You look like breakfast,” Will supplied, tracing his fingers over the tight material stretched across his broad chest. </p>
<p>“Will,” Hannibal warned, as Chiyoh emerged from the main bathroom. She quirked her eyebrow at him, mouth pursed with distaste.</p>
<p>Will let go reluctantly, cheeks flaming about being caught saying something so provocative. “Morning,” he greeted awkwardly as he made his way to the coffee pot.</p>
<p>“Hello,” she said with no friendliness in her voice at all. Will was suddenly hyper aware that he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his body was covered in bruises left by Hannibal’s mouth. </p>
<p>“We can speak in front of him,” Hannibal assured her.</p>
<p>She stood at the end of the counter, eyes flicking between the two. “If you are certain.”</p>
<p>“Chiyoh has been keeping me appraised on the situation in Baltimore. The general consensus being that you and I suffered mortal injuries in our battle with Dolarhyde before we took a tumble from the cliff.” Hannibal supplied.</p>
<p>“Well that’s good news. It would mean no one is looking for us,” Will said thankfully.</p>
<p>“He said, ‘the general consensus,” Chiyoh reminded. “There are a few that do not believe either of you have died. Jack Crawford being one of them, the other being your wife. They have a difference of opinion on why you haven’t returned, however.”</p>
<p>“Jack would know the truth,” Will whispered. “He came up to see me in Wolf Trap right before I sailed to Europe to find you. I had believed I wouldn’t be seeing him again, and I finally gave him the truth of it. That I had wanted to leave with you that night. That I wanted to run away,” he sighed.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s eyebrows rose at that, but he didn’t comment on it. “Your… wife believes I’ve kidnapped you and held you against your will, possibly to torture you.”</p>
<p>Will grimaced, an errant feeling of guilt worming its way in. “The longer we hold out and don’t draw attention to ourselves, the more likely we will be forgotten. No one will believe you could go so long without doing what you do. If it stays quiet long enough it’ll pass.”</p>
<p>“I’ve also had no luck tracing Alana Bloom, or her family. They’ve managed to stay in hiding,” Chiyoh continued.</p>
<p>Will turned to Hannibal, eyebrows pinched in confusion as Hannibal spoke. “They will come out eventually. When they do, you’ll find them.”</p>
<p>“Wait,” Will interrupted, hand raised. “Why are you looking for Alana? Don’t tell me to kill her, Hannibal.”</p>
<p>Hannibal took a delicate sip of his coffee, his face hard as he regarded Will. “I promised her, Will. I always keep my promises.”</p>
<p>“No,” Will said lowly, voice dipping with anger. “That’s bullshit. You won’t kill her, Hannibal. She hasn’t done anything to you to deserve it.”</p>
<p>“I gave her an ultimatum,” Hannibal argued.</p>
<p>“<i>Bullshit</i>,” Will spat, interrupting him. “She saved our lives that night at Muskrat Farm. If it weren’t for her, Mason would have worn my face as he fucking ate you, Hannibal. Besides that night, she was good to you all these years. I don’t know if you remember what my cell looked like while I was in the mental hospital because you put me there, but it wasn’t a God damn museum like she allowed for you.”</p>
<p>“You’ll learn to speak to me with more respect, Will. I appreciate your southern sass on occasion, but the way you are speaking to me right now is… reckless.” Hannibal warned, his fingers gripping his coffee cup tightly.</p>
<p>“Oh, fuck off,” Will bellowed. “Kill me, don’t kill me. Eat me, for all I care. Leave Alana and her family out of it.”</p>
<p>Hannibal set his cup down, his hands gripping the countertop in a clear effort to regain control of himself. “If you would excuse us, Chiyoh,” he said lowly, but politely. </p>
<p>She nodded once, “Should I return? Did you have errands?”</p>
<p>“Not today, thank you.”</p>
<p>She left swiftly, leaving Hannibal still clutching the counter as he took a deep breath. “Why do you provoke me, Will? Why?”</p>
<p>Will leaned against the counter, hands rubbing at his face wearily. “I’m just… angry. She saved your life twice, once with Mason, and then again by preventing you from getting the needle. And you sit here like a child, mooning over a pinkie promise made years ago. Be an adult and try to be thankful that she was so good to you. To the both of us.”</p>
<p>Hannibal was at his side in a moment, gripping Will’s upper arm and turning him roughly, his other hand gripping Will far too tightly under his jaw. “Do you think you don’t behave as a child?” Hannibal asked, his voice gone flat and deadly. Will’s hands came up to pull at Hannibal’s fingers around his throat, and Hannibal let him go swiftly. “You forgive me yet throw past indiscretions in my face every chance you find. <i>Childish</i>,” he spat, looming over Will menacingly. </p>
<p>Will shoved at Hannibal’s chest, weaving out from against the counter to take a few measured steps away. Without thought, his hand came up to rub absently at the fingerprints that would soon be bruises on his throat, and Hannibal deflated against the counter. “I’m sorry, Will,” he said with a frustrated sigh. “I should not have hurt you.”</p>
<p>Will swallowed, eyes shimmering a bit, “You’re so good at it, though. Aren’t you?”</p>
<p>Hannibal rubbed at his temple; his face slackened with regret. “I promise you, Will, that I will not kill Alana. I won’t do anything to her or her family unless she provokes me to. If she leaves me be, then I will return the favor.”</p>
<p>Will licked his lips, considering Hannibal’s promise. “I think that’s fair.” Both men were quiet for a moment as the hostile atmosphere dissipated. </p>
<p>“Would you like breakfast?” Hannibal asked eventually.</p>
<p>Will laughed, face twisting sarcastically, “I did, but I find my hunger has passed. Thanks, though.”</p>
<p>Hannibal sucked his teeth, “I meant food, Will.”</p>
<p>Will left the room as he called over his shoulder, “I know you did.”</p>
<p>Walking back into his bedroom, Will rummaged through his drawers to find his swim trunks. Also, blue. </p>
<p>The idea of wearing something that Hannibal picked out for him suddenly felt suffocating. Is this how it would be, Will wondered? Will bending and folding to fit into Hannibal’s life; his mouth learning it’s place, never speaking out of turn and his preferences slowly evolving into something Hannibal decided for him.</p>
<p>The thought alone pissed Will off. He changed into a light blue tee shirt and beige shorts, before emerging from his room. He called a cab from the living room, where Hannibal watched him curiously from the kitchen island. “Where are you going?” Hannibal asked quietly.</p>
<p>“Wherever the fuck I want to,” Will responded tartly.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s fist clenched, but he didn’t come any closer to Will. “Are you going to return to me?” Hannibal asked, his voice holding a note of desperation that made Will pause by the front door. </p>
<p>Will sighed, shifting his feet as he turned to Hannibal. “I’ll always come back to you. Don’t you know that by now?”</p>
<p>“I will do better by you, Will. I promise you this.” Hannibal whispered.</p>
<p>Will pulled the front door open, pausing in the entry way. “And you always keep your promises. I will come back, Hannibal,” Will assured in return, before he left the house.</p>
<p>Will spent the day shopping, buying himself clothes that he liked, in colors that he wanted. The colors were different from things that Hannibal chose for him, but the cuts and fabrics were very similar. Will found he appreciated his appearance in clothes that actually fit him more than baggier pieces he tended to buy before. The only real difference was that Will preferred grays and forest greens. His new swim trunks were green with palm leaves on them.</p>
<p>He walked past a barber shop, his fingers coming up idly to pull at his significantly longer curls. Hannibal liked his hair longer. He never out-right said it, but he didn’t really have to.</p>
<p>Will left the barber an hour later, his face shaved clean and his hair cut shorter. The back of his hair had been tapered neatly using a trimmer, while he left the top a bit longer, allowing a hint of curls.<br/>
Something about the new cut made the lines of Will’s face more severe, and Will found he liked it a lot.</p>
<p>Despite how annoyed he was with Hannibal at the moment, he still took a moment to venture into a pharmacy for a very specific purchase he felt they would inevitably need at some point.<br/>
Feeling especially bold, he wandered into a music store and repurchased all of his favorite albums. </p>
<p>After grabbing tacos for dinner at an outside food truck, Will hoisted all of his purchases in his arms and made one more stop at a bookstore to rebuy all of his favorite novels, as well as ones that he’d always meant to read. Hannibal’s house was about to become their house, whether he knew it or not.</p>
<p>After spending the most money in a single day that Will had ever spent, he hailed a cab on the sidewalk and made his way home.</p>
<p>Hannibal was in the living room when he walked in long after the sun had set, watching Will warily as he dragged all of his new purchases in the house.</p>
<p>“You missed dinner,” Hannibal reprimanded mildly.</p>
<p>Will shrugged, taking in a fatigued breath as he dropped all his bags on the floor. “I grabbed tacos at a food truck.”</p>
<p>Hannibal grimaced, “You’ll likely get food poisoning.”</p>
<p>“I’ve been fed worse things, haven’t I?” he sassed.</p>
<p>Will dragged all of his bags into his room, grunting with the effort. His arm and shoulder were bothering him from carrying them all day. He picked up the bag of books and walked into the study, where Hannibal followed him.</p>
<p>Will looked around the bookcases, rearranging them to fit his own books neatly into the spaces he created as Hannibal watched him.</p>
<p>“I live here, too,” Will said eventually. “I will say what I want to, when I want to. Things that I like will have their space in here. I’ll wear what the hell I want to wear, even if it’s lime green and pink. And if you ever put a mark on me again that isn’t made in the heat of the moment with your mouth, I will leave you.” </p>
<p>Hannibal rubbed absently at his jaw, his eyes dark with contrition. “Understood, Will.”</p>
<p>Will nodded, taking a deep breath as he turned to the horrible bronze torso on the coffee table. He walked over and picked it up, before dumping it into the small trash bin by Hannibal’s desk. “I hate that fucking thing,” he said with a chuckle.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s mouth twitched with amusement, but he contained the grin behind his long fingers. “Is there anything else?”</p>
<p>“I want a workspace where I can make my fishing lures. Maybe your old bedroom could be converted into a space for my fishing gear? I’d also like a shed or something outside where I can work on motors when I want to.”</p>
<p>Surprise was evident on Hannibal’s face. “You would still like for us to share a room?”</p>
<p>Will walked over to him and took his face in his hands, bringing their mouths together for a chaste kiss before pulling away. “I’d like for us to share everything together,” he admitted. “I want you to love me for exactly who I am. Our house will be a mess with my shit all over it, and I want you to accept that and accept me despite it.”</p>
<p>“Did you have to cut your hair, though?” Hannibal asked miserably, his fingers coming up to mourn the missing curls at the nape of his neck.</p>
<p>Will laughed, eyes rolling with mock annoyance. “It’s too hot here for it.”</p>
<p>“It suits you,” he said finally. “You won’t be able to hide your blushes under your curls anymore.”</p>
<p>Will leaned up and kissed him again, this time lingering a moment to slide their tongues together briefly. “I don’t want to hide from you at all, Hannibal.”</p>
<p>The relief on Hannibal’s face was evident as he leaned forward and nuzzled the skin of Will’s jaw. “I suppose we could also put the dog bed in the room with your fishing gear,” he conceded.</p>
<p>Will reeled back, his eyes wide as he looked up at the older man. “You’d be okay with me getting a dog? Really?”</p>
<p>Hannibal sighed reluctantly, his fingers sliding gently against Will’s ribs. “You can get as many God forsaken dogs as you want. Just stay with me. Stay and don’t let me make you who I want you to be. Always remind me that I love you just as you are.”</p>
<p>Will held Hannibal’s face, their eyes locked. “I love you,” Will whispered, noting that Hannibal’s eyes shimmered with the admission. “I love you so much that I’m afraid I’ll lose myself in you. It’s like we blur, when we are together, and I’m terrified I’ll disappear in it. That one day my love for you will make me someone else. Someone that you don’t even recognize anymore, and you won’t want me because of it.”</p>
<p>“Impossible,” Hannibal whispered. “I don’t have any experience, sharing my life with someone like this. I know I can be… difficult when it comes to certain things. But I accept you for who you are. Fill this home with whatever dreadful literature you want, decorate it how you want, I don’t care, Will.”</p>
<p>Will pulled away from him, licking his bottom lip as he considered what he was about to say. “You shared your life with Bedelia,” he said, not quite able to hide the note of jealousy in his voice.<br/>
Hannibal chuckled, “I most certainly did not. She had no say in anything in the house. Nor did her opinions on anything sway me one way or another. We had an arrangement that suited me in the moment, nothing more.”</p>
<p>“Did you sleep with her?” Will asked, his mouth moving more quickly than his brain.</p>
<p>Hannibal stepped away from Will, sitting carefully in his leather chair. “I did,” he admitted.</p>
<p>Will crossed his arms, jealousy throbbing hotly in his chest. “How many times?” </p>
<p>“Does it matter? I love you, I’ve never loved her. Should I ask how many times you slept with your wife?”</p>
<p>“It doesn’t matter, and it does,” Will argued. “She took my place that night. Immediately after you gutted me in your kitchen, you filled my space with Bedelia, like I didn’t even matter. I also went to see her a few times while you were in prison. She loved to talk about how she and I shared you the same way. It always irked me to hear it. Describing us as Bluebeard’s wives, like she held sway over you in the same way that I do.”</p>
<p>“She doesn’t. She did not take your place because you didn’t matter. It was simply convenience that led her to my side.” Hannibal offered. “Would you like for me to kill her?”</p>
<p>Will chuckled, sitting on the edge of Hannibal’s desk while he drummed his fingers along its edge. “No, I don’t think I’d like her dead,” he said eventually. “But I would like to show her who we are to one another. I’d like her to know that she lives because I’ve allowed her to, because I have the power to still your hand.”</p>
<p>Hannibal raised his brow at the comment. “Does it make you feel good, knowing that you have that kind of influence over me?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” Will agreed easily. “Does that feel manipulative?”</p>
<p>“Sometimes,” Hannibal confessed with a smirk. “But you’ve never been one to take what you really wanted. I feel you’re testing the boundaries of how far you can go with me, and I worry you’ll be quite spoiled soon as I have immense difficulty in denying you anything.”</p>
<p>Will sucked his teeth, “Yeah, about the spoiling thing. Don’t be shocked when you see I’ve spent like a thousand dollars today.”</p>
<p>Hannibal laughed, “Did purchasing all these terrible novels make you happy? That’s all I care.”</p>
<p>“Not just books,” Will admitted. “I bought CD’s and clothes, too. There will be some blue, Hannibal. But I’ve always been fond of forest greens and woodsy colors. You’ll survive it I think.”<br/>

“If you would wear what I prefer only, you’d be wearing nothing at all, if I were to be honest.”</p>
<p>“It could be arranged,” Will teased. “I don’t think Chiyoh would appreciate it though.”</p>
<p>Hannibal reached out and wrapped a finger in Will’s beltloop, dragging him closer. Will went willingly, wedging himself between the desk and Hannibal’s chair, thighs spread so Hannibal could fit between them. “I would take her eyes for seeing you that way,” he said possessively.</p>
<p>Will rolled his eyes in response, “You’d better not.”</p>
<p>Hannibal stood up, bringing his mouth to Will’s softly. His fingers slid under the fabric of Will’s shirt, sliding it up and off of his body. Will took his time unbuttoning Hannibal’s shirt before he slid the fabric from his broad shoulders. “Are you terribly sore today?” Hannibal asked, his voice dipping low with the question.</p>
<p>“I can still feel you there,” he admitted, eliciting a groan from the older man as he mouthed at Will’s throat, kissing each fingerprint he had put there. “It’s not painful, though.”</p>
<p>Hannibal swallowed, “Would you like to go to bed?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” he pleaded.</p>
<p>Their mouths clashed as Will stood up, both tearing clothing from one another’s bodies as they stumbled to their bedroom. Will tossed all the bags to the floor except the small pharmacy bag. “I got us something,” he teased.</p>
<p>Hannibal reached into the bag and groaned as he pulled the bottle of lube out. “You truly are a miracle,” he praised.</p>
<p>Hannibal tossed the covers back as Will slid into the sheets, sighing at the cool feel of them against his skin. “Maybe I should shower first? I spent the day walking around and sweating, which is kind of a turn off.”</p>
<p>“You’ll do no such thing,” Hannibal warned as he crawled between Will’s spread thighs. He bent and licked at Will’s stomach, then his ribs, sighing at the flavor he found there. “You are mouthwatering.”</p>
<p>Will chuckled under him, his fingers weaving into Hannibal’s neat hair and rumpling it wonderfully. “Your mouth isn’t going anywhere near my ass until I’ve showered. I would be so mortified I would likely die,” Will warned.</p>
<p>Hannibal wrapped his fingers around Will’s cock, dragging lazily. “There will come a point where you won’t care about such trivialities. Until then I’ll humor you.”</p>
<p>Leaning forward, Hannibal caught Will’s mouth in a kiss, lining their cocks perfectly enough for him to wrap his fingers around the both of them. Their mouths and fingers explored each other eagerly, Hannibal tasting him everywhere he could reach that wouldn’t require pulling their bodies apart.</p>
<p>Hannibal reached forward and dragged a pillow over, lifting Will’s hips and sliding it under the small of his back. Flicking the cap of the lube, he coated a few fingers and warmed it before reaching between them and probing gently at Will’s entrance.</p>
<p>It didn’t hurt, but Will did notice more discomfort in this than the night before. “We don’t need to do this,” Hannibal offered.</p>
<p>“If you don’t, I will kill you,” Will threatened with a chuckle.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s mouth twitched as he pressed a finger inside, twisting gently to open him up enough for another finger. In an effort to distract Will, he slid down the bed and wrapped his mouth around his cock, sucking the head greedily. </p>
<p>Will’s back arched off the bed, a moan escaping his mouth at the onslaught of sensation. Hannibal’s mouth bobbed in time with his fingers, adding another easily after only a moment. </p>
<p>Will heard the cap of the bottle click again, and soon another finger was pressing in and twisting up, rubbing delightfully at the spot that made Will see stars.</p>
<p>Hannibal licked at the head of his cock one last time, collecting the precum there with a groan of pleasure at the back of his throat. He slid back up on his knees, kneeling against the back of Will’s thighs. “Tell me if it’s too uncomfortable, please.”</p>
<p>Sliding his fingers out, he added a generous amount of lube to his palm and wrapped it around his own cock, smearing it with the liquid before pressing at Will’s opening.</p>
<p>Will was grateful to find the lube worked much better than shower gel, as Hannibal slid in easily the first few inches. The burning sensation bloomed into mild discomfort, and Hannibal wrapped his fingers around Will’s cock to help distract him as he continued sliding in.</p>
<p>Will watched his face raptly, taking in the fine details of his cheekbones and mouth in the low lamp light. His elegance even in something as carnal as this was marveling. The only proof of his dishevelment being the sweep of soft hair hanging across his brow.</p>
<p>Will blushed when he realized that while he was admiring Hannibal, the older man was very much doing the same to Will. His eyes were raking over his face, open adoration apparent in every way. “You are a beauty, Will. Your eyes while you look at me say more in this moment than any words. I should have known you loved me without hearing it.”</p>
<p>“Hearing it is nice,” Will conceded with a long moan as Hannibal rolled his hips firmly. “Because I do love you.”</p>
<p>Hannibal inhaled sharply and leaned forward to bring their mouths together as his hips thrust slowly, only nudging the spot inside Will softly.</p>
<p>Will dragged his fingers down Hannibal’s back, fingering the brand Mason Verger left there all those years ago. A small flame of bitterness flared in Will that someone would dare mark Hannibal, who did not belong to them. He pulled away from Hannibal, eyes watering as his fingers traced the raised flesh of the older man’s back. “I wish I would have killed him for this,” he sighed quietly. </p>
<p>“I would have liked to watch you,” Hannibal agreed. </p>
<p>“Keep going at this pace,” Will moaned. “I want you inside me for hours, please.”</p>
<p>Hannibal chuckled, licking against Will’s neck as he did. “I’ll do my best.”</p>
<p>Their bodies slid together sinuously, each taking in one another as though seeing each other for the first time. Every muscle of Hannibal’s arms and chest were explored by Will’s fingers. Will was cataloging him, ensuring that every aspect of Hannibal’s body could be recalled with perfect clarity, should he ever be without him for some reason.</p>
<p>Will was building a new room in his mind palace, specifically for Hannibal’s body.</p>
<p>He wrapped his legs around Hannibal’s waist, pulling him against himself tightly as he wrapped his arms around Hannibal’s neck. The idea of ever needing to use this room was devastating.</p>
<p>Hannibal sensed Will’s sudden desperation, somehow knowing immediately what must be causing it. He thrust deeply, hitting the spot more urgently, drawing a surprised moan from Will that Hannibal took advantage of, licking into his open mouth greedily. “You’ll never be without me,” Hannibal promised. “Never.”</p>
<p>Hannibal slid the pillow out from under Will and pulled his torso up so Will was straddling his kneeling thighs. Will planted his feet against the bed and wrapped his arms around Hannibal’s neck for leverage as he experimentally lifted and dropped his hips against Hannibal, a shock of pleasure rocking through him at the feel of it. His head fell back as he did it again, both moaning at the feel of how deep Hannibal was, and how good it felt.</p>
<p>“Like <i>this</i>, Hannibal,” Will rasped. “Jesus, just like this.”</p>
<p>Will’s thighs burned as he picked up the pace, snapping his hips down rapidly, slamming into that spot deep inside of him with such fervor that the pleasure made him tremble, hips stuttering from the overwhelming feeling.</p>
<p>Hannibal suckled a few new bruises on Will’s throat, holding the small of his back lovingly as he did. He reached between them and pulled at Will’s cock, and Will arched against the pleasure of it.</p>
<p>“Come with me, Will.” Hannibal pleaded.</p>
<p>Will nodded drunkenly as Hannibal lifted him enough to slam back into his body a few times, pleasure blinding Will as he came with a broken sob, knees giving out as Hannibal bucked into him, pulsing deep in his body.</p>
<p>They held each other for a few moments, breathing harshly while fingertips smoothed over sweaty skin.</p>
<p>Hannibal lowered Will back to the bed and leaned over his abdomen and chest, licking at Will’s come that had spattered there. Will chuckled exhaustedly, moving his arm so Hannibal could get it all.<br/>

“Do you really like that?” Will asked seriously as Hannibal snuggled against him, arms wrapped possessively around Will’s body.</p>
<p>“I want nothing more than this flavor on my tongue, every day until I perish.”</p>
<p>Will kissed under Hannibal’s jaw, flicking his tongue out to have a taste of the stubble there. “That can be arranged,” Will said with a tired laugh. </p>
<p>They were quiet for a few moments as their fingers continued exploring before Hannibal spoke. “If you decide what you’d like to do with Bedelia, I would like to make it known that I expect some kind of reciprocity.”</p>
<p>Will pulled away enough to look at him, alarm working its way into his sated muscles. “Meaning what exactly?”</p>
<p>Hannibal leaned forward to press his lips against Will’s forehead. “You’d like Bedelia to know that you are my beating heart living outside my body. I would like your <i>wife</i> to know that I am yours.”</p>
<p>Will swallowed tightly, dread worming it’s way in. “I don’t want to hurt her, Hannibal. Please don’t ask me to do that.”</p>
<p>“I’m not asking you to hurt her physically,” Hannibal assured. “But a declaration would be appreciated. Anything that dissuades her notion that you are tied in a basement, enduring my endless torment.”</p>
<p>The idea of Molly knowing he had chosen Hannibal over her made Will’s heart break. She had survived so much already, and it seemed unthinkable to force her to endure something like this. If the situation were reversed, though, Will knew he would be demanding more than a declaration. The dark jealousy that swirled in him at the thought was all the proof he needed of that. </p>
<p>If she finally knew, maybe she could move on with her life, Will conceded. It would be an enormous humiliation for her to find out she had been in love with a monster, but maybe it would be enough for her to finally have the closure she needed. </p>
<p>“I’ll do a declaration, Hannibal.” Will said finally. Hannibal’s arms tightened minutely around him, and he sighed. “It’ll create a shitstorm in the media, you know.”</p>
<p>Hannibal hummed, “Murder husbands, alive and well.”</p>
<p>“Freddie will have a cow,” Will added with a chuckle.</p>
<p>“Uncle Jack will be devastated.”</p>
<p>Will sighed, leaning up to kiss Hannibal’s mouth. “He won’t be,” he mumbled against Hannibal’s lips. “He’s known I loved you for way longer than I have.”</p>
<p>“Maybe we should leave him a fruit basket for continually bringing us back together,” Hannibal offered.</p>
<p>Will laughed, eyes twinkling at the very thought. “See? This is coming together all on its own.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter Six</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Will woke in the morning to a mouth wrapped around his cock, and his traitor hips thrusting mindlessly into the wet heat of it.</p><p>“Ha-Hannibal?” Will said groggily, lazy fingers twirling into soft, graying hair. </p><p>Hannibal looked up at him, dragging his lips crudely to the tip, before sinking back down so Will was nudging the back of his throat. “Christ,” Will sighed, his tired body stretching sleepily into the sensation.<br/>
It was only a few moments of heavy suction, fingers teasing Will’s balls gently before Will was coming, hips rolling gently as he emptied himself in Hannibal’s mouth.</p><p>Will gasped heavily, eyes significantly more awake, now. “You blew me in my sleep?” Will asked disbelievingly.</p><p>Hannibal looked a little apologetic, thumbing a bit of Will’s come from the corner of his mouth and suckling the pad of his finger. “You were rubbing against me in your sleep. It was impossible to resist.”</p><p>An incredulous laugh bubbled out of Will’s throat, and he tugged the older man down for a kiss.</p><p>“You haven’t had a nightmare in two nights,” Hannibal noted.</p><p>“There’s always tonight,” Will said while stretching against Hannibal’s body. </p><p>Hannibal hummed while his fingers trailed along Will’s ribs. “Tell me about them, please.”</p><p>A sigh escaped Will’s mouth as he dropped his head back to his pillow. “They’re always different, but the gist is the same.”</p><p>“In what way?” Hannibal asked, his tone tipping towards clinical without meaning to.</p><p>“You die.” Will admitted finally, his voice breaking with the admission. “The way it happens is always different, but it always ends with you leaving me. You bleed out, you drown, you drift away in the surf, and I’m drowning in blood and sea water. I can’t get to you. I can’t save you. I feel like I’m drowning. The last one I had, you abandoned me and let me burn to death.”</p><p>Hannibal was silent for a few moments, his eyes watching Will’s face carefully. “It’s the idea of my death or abandonment that causes the drowning feeling? Literally or metaphorically?”</p><p>“Sometimes both. Once, Dolarhyde shot you, but it came through your chest. You bled so much that the room was filling with it. I watched your eyes fade out and I decided to drown in your blood to end the despair I was feeling.”</p><p>“The idea of me dying causes you despair?” Hannibal asked. “It wasn’t very long ago that you fantasized about my death. I suppose it’s a good sign that you do not want that anymore.”</p><p>“I didn’t want it then,” Will admitted, turning his head and kissing Hannibal’s nose, much to the older man’s delight. “I was fighting with who I was at the time, and you were the personification of what I was fighting against. These nightmares are simple to understand compared to the ones in my past. It would kill me if something happened to you, or if you left me. My brain apparently worries about it in my sleep.”</p><p>“I don’t want to sound self-congratulating,” Hannibal began.</p><p>“You? Never,” Will teased.</p><p>Hannibal rolled his eyes, his mouth quirked with a smile. “Maybe having me here while you sleep helps you?”</p><p>“Oh, I know that helps. Hearing your heartbeat seems to be like a sedative for my brain. Like the exact kind of white noise that calms my anxieties enough that I can relax. I figured that out a while ago, I just didn’t know how to ask you to sleep under my ear without sounding insane. I think the scent of you helps, too.”</p><p>“When I would come to you after a particularly terrible night terror, you always went straight for my heart. I wondered why that was. The truth of it is remarkably sentimental, Will. I’m very honestly moved right now.”</p><p>“The… sentiment of it surprises you? I love you, Hannibal. You know that.”</p><p>The older man grinned down at him, the corners of his eyes crinkling beautifully as he did. “I imagined our love to be like our friendship was. I never expected you to be so forthcoming with affection, nor sentiment. I’m appreciative that I was amiss.”</p><p>Will took a moment to drink him in. The way the early morning sunlight bronzed his skin and made his eyes look gold and green at the same time. The soft, graying hair over his forehead. Every detail of him so lovely that Will sighed just looking at him. “Can we just stay in bed all day?”</p><p>“I wish I could,” Hannibal said miserably. “Chiyoh is picking me up shortly. I must speak with her about passports and plane tickets so we may pay our dear Bedelia a visit. Take the time to consider what you’d like to do,” Hannibal suggested.</p><p>“I guess that’s a fair reason to leave me wanting all day,” Will teased.</p><p>“Leave you wanting,” Hannibal repeated dryly. “Must you provoke me?”</p><p>Will laughed again and flipped back the covers, leaving the bed. He stretched his aching muscles, wincing at the… mess he felt on his backside and thighs. “I’ve got to shower,” Will said coyly.</p><p>The growl from the bed urged another laugh from him. “Go get dressed, Hannibal. Poor Chiyoh has seen enough of our proclivities in the last day.”</p><p>The doorbell rang twice as he said it, and Hannibal groaned. “I’ll go see to her,” he said as he pulled his pants on from the night before. “I’ll likely be gone by the time you come out of the shower,” he reminded.</p><p>Will walked over and kissed him soundly. “Come back to me soon, please.”</p><p>“Always,” Hannibal promised.</p><p>Will went to the shower after he left, taking his time to clean himself thoroughly, and to explore his sore entrance with his fingers gently. </p><p>There had to be a way to help stretch himself a bit, he wondered? Blushing to himself at the thought, he emerged, and towel dried himself before he pulled on his brand-new green swim trunks and a forest green tee shirt. He brushed his teeth and put on deodorant, before leaving his room.</p><p>Hannibal was right, he was already gone by the time he finished. Will wondered for a moment if Hannibal even bothered with a shower, and the thought of him going out for the day covered in Will’s scent while scruffy with day-old stubble, was a distracting one.</p><p>Will crept into Hannibal’s study, and powered on the small laptop on his desk. He had no idea what to search for, so he tried a few crude searches before he found what he was looking for. Will’s heart slammed in his chest as he added it to the cart and checked out, paying the extra fifteen dollars for two-day shipping. Now he just had to make sure Hannibal didn’t get the mail before he did.</p><p>He cleared the search history quickly and powered the laptop down. Padding his way to the backyard, he shucked his tee shirt and dove into the pool. He felt terribly out of shape and did as many laps as he could until his shoulder protested the activity. He hoisted himself out of the pool, flopping gracelessly on the cement as he panted to regain his breath. </p><p>He had an idea about what to do with Bedelia. And the plan might cover all their bases at the same time.</p><p>Will laid in the sun for an hour or so, until his stomach demanded something be done about his hunger. He pulled his shirt back on and went inside, rummaging through the fridge until he found leftovers of the frittata Hannibal must have made for dinner last night. He made himself a plate and brewed some coffee, settling down at the kitchen island to eat as Hannibal walked in the door.</p><p>“Hey,” Will greeted, shoveling the delicious frittata into his mouth with no grace at all.</p><p>Hannibal chuckled, walking up to the counter. Will’s brain froze at the sight of him in another tee shirt, this time paired with gray slacks. He did in fact have a day’s worth of stubble on his jaw, and Will wanted to know what it tasted like.</p><p>“You should always wear tee shirts,” Will commented.</p><p>“I was distracted this morning,” Hannibal said shortly. “I did not have time to get dressed.”</p><p>“Shame,” Will said sardonically as he sipped his coffee. “What happened with Chiyoh?”</p><p>Hannibal poured himself a cup of coffee, sipping it gently with a scowl. “Do you use the measuring spoon for the grinds?”</p><p>“No,” Will admitted. “I just put enough grinds to guarantee I won’t sleep for a week.”</p><p>“Evidently,” Hannibal muttered. Will rolled his eyes and took a deliberate sip of his coffee. “I’ve given her a list of things we will need. It is quite extensive, and some things may take time, like the passports and figuring out where Bedelia is staying.”</p><p>“She’ll be in Baltimore,” Will predicted. “She isn’t afraid of me. She thinks we are both victims, somehow. She also seems to think you care about her too much to actually hurt her.”</p><p>“Would you really feel comfortable walking straight into the hornet’s nest?” </p><p>Will sighed as he finished eating. “that was really good. And, there’s only one hornet looking for us, and I doubt Jack would think we’re stupid enough to come back to Baltimore any time soon.”</p><p>“We will have to time it perfectly. We’d need to be out of the country before they are even aware we were there. It can be done, of course. I’ll medicate Bedelia enough that she will be out for hours after we leave.”</p><p>“I’ll trust you with that.”</p><p>“You’ve gotten some sun, I see.”</p><p>Will shrugged, “I did some laps in the pool to try and get back into shape a bit.”</p><p>“I think I’ll do the same,” Hannibal agreed. “Are you too tired to join me?”</p><p>“Not at all,” Will chuckled. </p><p>Hannibal changed into a tight pair of swim shorts, and Will’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth at the sight. Hannibal grinned when he caught him ogling, and Will blushed.</p><p>Hannibal did a few laps around the pool, and Will was struck by how good of a swimmer he was. “I used to swim quite a lot before,” Hannibal explained. “Usually after my appointment with you.”</p><p>“So, I’d leave your office and you’d go breaststroke for an hour.”</p><p>Hannibal laughed, tipping his head back to squint up at him from in the pool. “Are you jealous that I went swimming, Will?”</p><p>“You could have invited me,” Will argued lamely.</p><p>“I stopped going shortly before you got out from the hospital,” Hannibal admitted.</p><p>Will sat by the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the water. “Why is that?”</p><p>Hannibal regarded him carefully for a moment, eyes somewhat suspicious. “Do you really not know or are you being deliberately obtuse?”</p><p>Slipping into the pool, Will waded over to Hannibal, “What are you talking about right now?”</p><p>Hannibal sighed, “It was where your dear friend Matthew tried to kill me.”</p><p>“He was not my friend,” Will’s mouth said quickly. It had never occurred to Will to ask about it. He honestly never really got the details about that night. “He found you at the pool and what, tried to drown you?”</p><p>Hannibal sucked his teeth, “He tranquilized me in the pool, but had no intention of drowning me. He slit my wrists and made me balance on a bucket with a noose around my throat. I had the option of bleeding out or hanging myself.”</p><p>Will’s eyes darted to the long scars on Hannibal’s wrists, never knowing how to broach the subject of how they had happened. “Jesus,” Will whispered.</p><p>“Alana and Jack saved me. Yet another time I suppose she’s earned her right to live.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, Hannibal.”</p><p>“It’s forgotten,” he said quickly.</p><p>There was more to it, and Will knew it. “So, you loved to swim, used to do it all the time. But because of me, this is the first time since that day that you’ve gone swimming.”<br/>
“I suppose, yes.”</p><p>I forget that I was such a shit sometimes.”</p><p>“Sometimes?” Hannibal teased.</p><p>Guilt was making it difficult for Will to think clearly, so he hummed in agreement. Hannibal sighed and waded over to Will, wrapping his arms around his waist, leaning in to kiss him. “I’m not angry,” Hannibal reassured him.</p><p>Will reached out for Hannibal’s wrist, kissing the scar there reverently before doing the same to the other wrist. “I’m angry at myself,” Will admitted. “The closest I got to actually killing you wasn’t even by my own hand. How insulting that must have been.”</p><p>“Let it go, Will.”</p><p>“I’m<i> trying</i>,” Will said haughtily, a touch of annoyance in his tone.</p><p>Hannibal kissed him again, a smirk on his face as he pulled away. “Your eyes in this pool, my love. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.”</p><p>“Don’t distract me,” Will chided. “I’m trying to wallow, here, and I don’t need you… <i>distracting</i> me.” Will’s stomach took that cue to growl loud enough that they both heard it, earning a chuckle from Hannibal.</p><p>“You just ate,” Hannibal teased.</p><p>“I haven’t gotten this much exercise in months,” Will defended, rubbing his stomach absently.</p><p>“I’ll start dinner, then.”</p><p>“No,” Will sighed, reaching out to stop Hannibal from hoisting himself from the pool. “I want to shower with you, then we can make dinner together.”</p><p>“Greedy boy,” he teased.</p><p>The shower ended up taking longer than either of them meant for it to, but the feel of each other’s bodies was a bit too much of a distraction to not follow through to completion. </p><p>Hannibal made perfectly seasoned steaks with fried eggs, and Will put together the salad made with gorgeous fresh produce from the market. It wasn’t fancy, but by the time they got out of the shower they were absolutely starving.</p><p>After they finished cleaning up, Hannibal pressed Will against the counter with his body. “I’d like to draw you, if you don’t mind sitting still for a little bit.”</p><p>Will blushed, his eyes darting away from Hannibal’s quickly, “You’ve drawn me plenty of times. You don’t need me sitting there to do it.”</p><p>“Drawing from memory always ends up lacking, in some way. I always prefer to have my inspiration in front of me.”</p><p>Will groaned, “I’ve never liked being scrutinized like that.” At the gentle insistence in Hannibal’s eyes, he caved with a sigh. “But I’ll do it, for you.”</p><p>“Your biggest flaw is also one of your most alluring qualities; you do not know your own beauty. You have no idea the effect you have on those around you, nor do you have any clue how you could use your magnificent features to bend the world to your will.”</p><p>Will’s blush creeped to his neck while his eyes deliberately trailed away from Hannibal’s own. “I’ve got big ears. My eyes are too big for my face. I’m a small man, hardly the strapping masculinity most people desire. And those are all just physical flaws, never mind the laundry list of personality traits I have. Your biggest flaw is seeing no flaws in me.”</p><p>Hannibal considered him for a moment, as though trying to see the things Will had pointed out. “You’ve always reminded me of Michelangelo’s David come to life, except endlessly more appealing. Your ears are lovely, Will. Practically edible in their sweetness.”</p><p>Hannibal grinned as Will squirmed under the attention, but he thankfully let up. “Shall we?” Hannibal asked politely.</p><p>They made their way to the study, Hannibal only turning on a lamp by his desk. “Do I have to be naked?” Will asked with horror in his voice as he poured himself a few fingers of whiskey. </p><p>“Not at all,” Hannibal assured him. “I’d very much just like to sketch your face tonight, if that’s alright.”</p><p>Will’s spine straightened with that, sipping gently at the smokey heat of his drink. “Oh, good. Yeah.” Sitting on the sofa, Will sighed awkwardly, tipping his head and scratching his stubble. “Should I look at you, or?”</p><p>“Do whatever feels comfortable.”</p><p>The room was quiet aside from the gentle scraping of the pencil against the paper, and Will watched Hannibal for a moment, before glancing towards the bookcase where he had stuffed all the novels he had purchased. “Do we own a cd player?” Will wondered.</p><p>“Yes, although I’ve always preferred vinyl over digital.”</p><p>Will snorted, taking a casual sip of his drink. “Of course, you do.”</p><p>“The speakers are wired throughout the home. I’ll show you how to use it tomorrow.”</p><p>Will nodded while his fingers traced the edge of his glass idly. “Will you get a harpsicord?”</p><p>Hannibal chuckled, his eyes flicking up in surprise momentarily. “It’s as though you can read my thoughts. I’ve been thinking about getting one for the last few days. It will be difficult to get one without the purchase drawing attention. They aren’t exactly in high demand, and I’m sure Jack will be keeping tabs on any purchase made for the foreseeable future.”</p><p>“You could get a piano, instead.” </p><p>Hannibal hummed, “That may be the safer option for now.”</p><p>“I know you prefer the harpsicord, but I’ve always wanted to hear you play the piano. I noticed in your home with Bedelia you had a piano.” The sting of the low jealously in his gut as he said it warranted another gulp of his drink to numb it.</p><p>“Doctor Fell owned the piano before I took over his life,” Hannibal reminded him.</p><p>“Right,” Will acknowledged. “Did you play for Bedelia?”</p><p>“I played for myself,” Hannibal sighed. “Bedelia would just happen to be there.”</p><p>“Did you ever fuck her on the piano?”</p><p>The disbelieving laugh from Hannibal was startling in the quiet of the room. “Such a possessive, jealous, creature. I could never have presumed this about you. I suppose green does look good on you, too.”</p><p>“Did you?” Will asked again.</p><p>“No, Will.”</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>“Would it make you feel any better to know that I forced her to only eat oysters and acorns, and only drink marsala wine?”</p><p>Will’s eyebrows furrowed in uncertainty. “Why… <i>Wait</i>, isn’t that what the Romans fed their cattle to make them taste better?”</p><p>Hannibal smirked, and Will’s full-belly laugh echoed through the room for a few minutes. “You’re <i>lying</i> to me,” he said, his voice squeaking up at the end as he continued to laugh.</p><p>“Never, Will.”</p><p>“Did…” he began, choking out the words through his laughter. “Did she understand why?”</p><p>Hannibal chuckled, his eyes lifting from the page briefly to look at Will’s face. “Of course she did.”</p><p>Will laughed again, and he wiped at a tear from the corner of his eye. “Christ, that’s hilarious.”</p><p>Hannibal’s smile was warm as he sketched, eyes lingering on Will for a moment. “I hardly ever get to hear you laugh like that. I adore it, Will. Just as I adore you.”</p><p>Will’s head lolled back against the sofa, a small smile still playing on his lips. “Cannibalism jokes. Who knew.”</p><p>“Humor is just the same as cannibalism. It all depends on a person’s taste,” Hannibal said dryly.</p><p>A startled laugh burst from Will again, his hand coming to rest on his stomach. “Were you always this funny?”</p><p>“I’d like to think so.”</p><p>Will hummed from the couch, still smiling at the thought of Bedelia eating acorns. A few more minutes went by, before Hannibal set the pencil down. “You’re done?” Will asked.</p><p>“For tonight, yes. Would you like to see?”</p><p>Will shrugged and stood up, walking over to the desk where the notebook lay under the lamplight. </p><p>Will huffed at the stunning man on the page. Hannibal had drawn him accurately, but accentuated his features, somehow. He still had the scar on his cheek, but his eyes were wide and clear, laugh lines evident from the smile on his face. His jawline was sharp, every feature just so lovingly created and enhanced, there was no way Will could argue this person wasn’t beautiful.</p><p>“This is how you see me.” Will said, a note of disbelief in his voice.</p><p>“This is how you look,” Hannibal emphasized. </p><p>Will glanced again at the paper, mouth pinched as he considered it. Without thought, his fingers came up to touch his jawline, then the scar on his cheek, Hannibal watching him carefully as he did.<br/>
“I guess I’m alright looking,” Will admitted with a laugh.</p><p>“Stubborn,” Hannibal breathed as he reached across the desk to drag their mouths together. Will sighed into the kiss, pulling away to rest their foreheads together.</p><p>“I know what I’d like to do about Bedelia,” Will offered.</p><p>“Oh?” Hannibal asked while his mouth took sips against Will’s bottom lip. </p><p>“I’d like to take a piece of her,” Will groaned, losing his train of thought as Hannibal stood, coming around the side of the desk to press himself to Will’s body. “Her arm or leg.”</p><p>Hannibal hummed against the side of his throat, his palm cupping Will’s erection through his pants. “I could also take something extra from inside. A kidney perhaps?”</p><p>Will shook his head as he turned their bodies, resting Hannibal on the edge of his desk as Will fell to his knees in front of him. His fingers worked to unbutton Hannibal’s slacks as he spoke. “No, I want to take something from her that makes her think of us, every day for the rest of her life. I imagine her, struggling to pop her plastic appendage on and seething while thinking of us together. Oh, and I want her conscious while we eat her.”</p><p>Hannibal groaned as Will pulled him from his slacks, working him lazily with his hand as they watched each other. “Would you like her to feel it, taking the arm or leg from her body?”</p><p>Will deliberated that, while his mouth latched onto the head of Hannibal’s length, swirling it with his tongue. He pulled away for a moment. “No, I don’t want her to have pain like that while it’s being taken. Her leg,” Will decided, before he sank back down over him.</p><p>Hannibal’s head fell back, his fingers combing through the hint of curls on Will’s head. “A leg,” Hannibal agreed. “Taken under anesthesia. Would she be joining us for dinner, Will?”</p><p>Will hummed around him and pulled off, his wrist continuing the attention as he smirked up at Hannibal. “Yes and no,” Will agreed. “We will need to find some oysters and acorns before we get to her house,” he chuckled.</p><p>“So we wake our dear Bedelia,” Hannibal hissed as Will wrapped his lips around him, dragging his teeth a bit when Hannibal called her ‘dear’, “after I cook her leg, and she watches us eat it while she joins us at the table. I’ll sedate her again once we finish, and that will give us an eight-hour head start.”</p><p>Will growled around him, suckling roughly before he pulled away with a pop, “Am I doing something wrong for you to still be talking while I’m doing this?” He wondered, his eyes flashing with annoyance, his mouth parted with wet, puffy, lips. “We should have Chiyoh call the FBI after eight hours, notifying them that there has been a sighting of us outside of Bedelia’s house. I don’t know if Bedelia would call them when she wakes up or call her publisher about her new book idea instead.” His tongue darted out to taste Hannibal as his wrist worked him. “I’d also actually like us to leave Jack a gift basket. I find I rather like the idea of thanking him for believing in us,” Will laughed.</p><p>“Such a spiteful thing,” Hannibal praised. “Have you given any thought to my request for reciprocity?”</p><p>“We will actually be killing three birds with one stone, or leg, as it were,” Will offered, his fingers clenching around Hannibal gently as he thumbed the head. “You’ll see once we get there. Please bring my wedding ring with you.”</p><p>“Anything, Will.”</p><p>Will smirked, eyes dark and shining with desire as he looked up at Hannibal. “This is <i>my </i>design.”</p><p>Hannibal pulled him up from his knees, slamming their mouths together furiously. He nipped Will’s bottom lip roughly, drawing a bead of Will’s blood that he promptly licked off with a groan. </p><p>Will tugged his fingers in Hannibal’s hair, dragging their crotches together painfully. “I want to fuck you against this desk,” Will said longingly, as he flicked his tongue out to collect another drop of blood from the corner of his lip.</p><p>Hannibal growled as he pulled Will’s shirt over his head. “Top drawer of my desk,” Hannibal offered.</p><p>Will reached forward and slid the drawer open, humming with delight at the tube of lube there. “Really,” Will chuckled.</p><p>“There is some throughout the house, now,” Hannibal smirked.</p><p>Will stripped from his shorts and underwear before he slid Hannibal’s slacks and underwear off as well. While Hannibal unbuttoned his shirt, Will spread a bit of lube in his palm and wrapped his fingers around their lengths, gliding easily over the both of them. “It’ll be like an Easter egg hunt,” Will chuckled. “Wherever I find lube, we will make love. So, get creative about it, Hannibal.”</p><p>Hannibal sighed, cupping both hands around Will’s throat reverently, while scenting his jaw. “Such a gift,” he remarked, almost to himself.</p><p>Will turned him so his stomach pressed against the desk, the both of them breathing harshly as Will’s fingers trailed along the horrible brand between his shoulder blades, then the scar from where the bullet entered. “I’d like to try something,” Will said imploringly. “Please, please do not be horribly offended if I find I just… can’t.”</p><p>Hannibal rolled his hips against the desk, looking for some relief. “Anything you want to give voluntarily is enough, Will.”</p><p>Will leaned over his back, kissing the brand gently, tracing the raised ridges of it with his tongue. “Was it Cordell that did this to you?”</p><p>Hannibal hummed in affirmation; eyes closed at the sensation from Will’s tongue on his spine. </p><p>“You took his face off. What else?”</p><p>“His tongue,” Hannibal growled as Will knelt behind him, flicking his tongue experimentally against the small of Hannibal’s back, tasting the clean flavor of Hannibal’s skin and the slight tang of sweat. “He choked to death on his own blood,” he managed to grit out.</p><p>Wil tutted as he spread his cheeks, his fingertip brushing against the hole that he found not even an ounce of revulsion against. “I would have taken his hands for touching you. I would have shoved his severed arm down his throat and let him suffocate on it,” he imagined, while leaning forward to press the flat of his tongue against Hannibal’s entrance. Hannibal’s hips bucked against the abruptness of it, and Will stilled him with his hands before continuing. </p><p>The flavor of Hannibal’s skin here was similar to the rest of him; clean and salty with sweat. When Will pushed the tip of his tongue just inside, the flavor was more earthy, just a touch less appealing than the rest of him, but no less intoxicating.</p><p>The noises Hannibal was making were enough to urge him on. He was doing this to this powerful man using nothing but his tongue and his mouth. The thought motivated him, and he latched on, suckling obscenely against the entrance, gently slipping the tip of his tongue in and out while his hand reached under to jerk at Hannibal’s cock.</p><p>“Will,” he panted against the desk. “I won’t last like this.”</p><p>Will pulled away reluctantly, biting at Hannibal’s lovely butt cheek as he did. “One day I’d like to finish you off like this. What a magnificent sight,” Will sighed.</p><p>“<i>Draugei</i>,” Hannibal panted as Will stood up to press a lubed finger into his slickened entrance. </p><p>“Hmm?” Will asked distractedly, scissoring a second slick finger inside the tight ring of muscle. The pressure around his fingers coupled with the heat of it was breathtaking.</p><p>Hannibal sighed. “Soulmate,” he whispered.</p><p>Will hummed in approval of it. “Say it again in… was it Lithuanian?”</p><p>“Yes,” Hannibal hissed. “<i>Draugei, mano širdis, mano viskas</i>.” Hannibal rumbled, his voice trembling with the weight of his admissions.</p><p>Will leaned over him to suckle bruises against his shoulder blades, and Hannibal arched his back to bring their mouths together over his shoulder. “Tell me what you said,” Will pleaded.</p><p>Hannibal dropped his elbows to the desk as Will added another finger, curling them gently and finding the spot that made Hannibal’s hips snap and moan wantonly. “It means,” he panted. “Soulmate. My heart, my <i>everything</i>.”</p><p>“I demand you speak to me in Lithuanian more often,” Will chuckled, sliding his fingers out gently and smearing more lube onto his cock. He lined them up, pressing the head against Hannibal’s stretched entrance, and pressed in carefully.</p><p>“Christ,” Will moaned. The sight of it was one separate overpowering experience, but nothing in the world could have prepared him for how tight it was. Hannibal adjusted his stance, widening it a bit as Will slid in a few inches, both panting harshly in the quiet of the room. “How do you keep from tearing me apart when you’re inside me? It’s so<i> tight</i>,” Will remarked with awe in his voice.</p><p>“I don’t want to hurt you,” Hannibal said simply.</p><p>Will pulled him up, his arms coming around his shoulders and waist, so his chest was against Hannibal’s back. The adjustment in stance slid him in further, both men groaning at the feeling. “Am I hurting you?” Will asked quietly, while nuzzling Hannibal’s throat with his mouth. </p><p>“The exact opposite,” Hannibal promised. “It’s beautiful.”</p><p>“Good,” Will sighed as he slid in the rest of the way. The heat and constriction around his cock was almost painful, but he stayed still for a moment to give Hannibal time to adjust to the intrusion.<br/>
Hannibal was the first to move, his hips grinding against Will sinuously, earning him a breathy chuckle from Will. </p><p>Will took the hint, sliding gently out and back in, his head falling forward to rest on Hannibal’s shoulder as he did. “Do I feel good?” Hannibal asked sinfully.</p><p>“Good?” Will asked, his hips snapping a bit more forcefully. He reached down and tipped Hannibal’s hips up, so Will could nail the spot inside of him directly. Hannibal collapsed against the desk at the feel of Will relentlessly drilling that tight bundle of nerves, his fingertips rough and possessive on Hannibal’s hips. “If heaven exists,” Will panted, “I want it to be this and only this for all eternity.”</p><p>Will tipped his head back as he lost himself in the feel of it, while Hannibal reached out to grip the edge of the desk, knocking notebooks and pencils off the edge as he did. “I’m very close, Will,” Hannibal warned breathlessly. “It’s… it’s too much.”</p><p>“Isn’t it?” Will agreed, knowing how blinding it is to have that spot inside brutalized. He pulled Hannibal up again, pressing their bodies together so he could reach around the older man and wrap his fingers around the throbbing cock he found there. </p><p>“Will,” Hannibal praised weakly, his head falling back to rest on Will’s shoulder. Will tried his best to keep his wrist movements in time with his perfectly aimed thrusts, but he was close, too.<br/>
His hips snapped harder, all control lost as he buried himself deeply in the older man, vaguely aware that Hannibal was coming all over his fingers as his balls drew up tight and he emptied himself deep inside.</p><p>Hannibal collapsed back to the desk, his breathing ragged while his body convulsed with aftershocks. Will pulled out gently, laying out on the desktop and licking at the back of his hand like a lazy cat.<br/>
Hannibal watched him, his mouth twitched up with amusement at the sight of Will so at ease with himself, mindlessly licking come from his fingers. </p><p>Hannibal reached out and pulled him closer, kissing him meaningfully and receiving a smile for it. “We are pretty good at this,” Will commented wearily.</p><p>“Practice certainly makes perfect,” Hannibal agreed, eyeing Will carefully. “You’ve been insatiable. Need I remind you that I’m not as young as I once was?”</p><p>“You act like you’re <i>old</i>,” Will teased. “There’s barely nine years between us. Does it bother you that I’m younger than you?”</p><p>
  “It bothers me that I may not be as satisfying as you’d like me to be,” Hannibal admitted, his voice smaller than Will had ever heard it.

</p><p>
 Will leaned forward on the desk, his elbow holding him up as he hovered over Hannibal, brushing the silky hair from his forehead. He let his eyes linger on Hannibal’s own, knowing that Hannibal liked when he could look in Will’s eyes for the conversations that mattered. “I’ve been insatiable because I have never experienced sex like this in my entire life,” Will confessed quietly. “This has been mind-blowing to me, to discover being intimate with someone can be like this. I’ve never really been a… sexual person. It’s not something I’ve ever craved, specifically. Before you, the act could be pleasurable, sure, but once it was done, I could basically forget it had happened. But with you it’s like I’m an exposed nerve; like my entire body is lit up, and the moment the connection is lost I’m already yearning for the feeling again. Have I been… too much?”

</p><p>
Hannibal chuckled, his eyes closing as he licked his lips. Will admired the splay of pale lashes against his skin. “Every time you blossom more fully in front of me, you are infinitely more beautiful than you were before. I’m just astonished by it, as I never specifically thought you would be quite so… voracious, either. It’s not too much, though. I’m quite inclined to agree with you that it’s never enough.”

</p><p>
Will’s face pinched in mock indignation; his eyebrow raised mischievously. “Is that your polite way of saying you thought I’d be a <i>boring</i> lay, Doctor Lecter?”

</p><p>
 Hannibal laughed, his teeth glinting in the lamp light. “You’re impossible, but I suppose that is what I’m saying.”
</p><p>
“Rude,” Will admonished with a chuckle.

</p><p>
 “I imagined you being a shy creature,” Hannibal mused. “Blushing and timid, preferring to explore each other in dark rooms under sheets that gave the illusion of privacy. Not boring, perhaps, but certainly not wanton.”

</p><p>
  “Basically, what you’re saying is that you were shocked when I presented my ass to you like a sorbet,” Will said crassly, blushing despite his confident words.

</p><p>
  Hannibal reached out, chuckling as he did, to touch the heat of Will’s cheeks. “As I’ve said, you’re a delight. Am I how you imagined?”

</p><p>
 “Better,” Will admitted. “And I had pretty high expectations. The devil is in the attention to detail that you put in everything in your life, and I knew sex would be no different. What surprises me is how right it feels. The connection between us,” Will sighed as he leaned forward to lick at Hannibal’s bottom lip. “It’s like a drug. Too much yet never enough.”

</p><p>
“Now I feel badly for imagining you the way I did,” Hannibal laughed.
</p><p>
 “I’ve always liked proving you wrong,” Will chuckled. Sitting up, Will rolled the ache from his shoulder gently. “Bed?”

</p><p>
  “Please.”
</p><p>
They made their way slowly, leaving all of their shed clothes on the floor. They brushed their teeth side by side, grinning foolishly at the domesticity of it.
</p><p>
  Hannibal took a moment to clean himself a bit with a damp washcloth, and Will watched him attentively as he did. 
</p><p>
  They climbed into bed, coming to rest in their preferred position of Will against Hannibal’s heart, and Hannibal’s arm wrapped protectively around Will’s shoulders.
</p><p>
 “This question may seem like I am fishing for compliments, but please, humor me. Did you find me attractive back then?” Hannibal wondered.
</p><p>
“I think I told you that I noticed you, but it wasn’t… in a visceral way. You were clearly an attractive man, but your pompous suits and demeanor were a turn off for me, initially.”
</p><p>
Hannibal chuckled, “Pompous? Now that’s quite rude.”
</p><p>
“I’ve always held a bit of a grudge against rich people, I guess.” Will admitted.
</p><p>
“Why is that?”
</p><p>
Will shrugged. “My Dad and I were always pretty poor when I was a kid. The rich kids were ruthless about it. I got beat up a lot, and my… gift made me a target for just about every bully in a fifty-mile radius. When I was little, I couldn’t quite control it like I can now, so I felt everything. The demeaning way that people felt about me would break my heart. My Dad would have to pick me up from school, and then I would feel his shame, too.” Will said quietly, swallowing tightly at the memory of his father’s face in his pick-up, equal parts anger at having to leave work for this again, and being generally fed-up with his son’s weirdness.
</p><p>
Hannibal’s fingers tightened slightly on Will’s shoulder, “Your Father sounds like a boorish man.”
</p><p>
  “No,” Will sighed, brushing his fingers against Hannibal’s chest fondly. “He did his best. I was… a hand full. He brought me to countless doctors after I had a meltdown in school after learning about the Holocaust for the first time. I was inconsolable, and my Dad was terrified by it. We went to a psychologist, who ended up being the one to accurately diagnose me, and I’ll never forget my Dad asking him if I was retarded.” Will chuckled without humor, his eyes watering as he did. “My Dad.”
</p><p>
  Hannibal leaned over and kissed Will’s forehead, lingering there for a moment before pulling away. “Who was it that diagnosed you? Do you remember?”
</p><p>
“Doctor Evans,” Will said easily. “He was a good man, he died while I was in college. He was the only reason I was able to control this chaos at all.”
</p><p>
“I’m glad you found him,” Hannibal said eventually.
</p><p>

“Mm,” Will agreed. “The first time I noticed you like that was when you jumped in the ambulance to stop the bleeding on the botched kidney transplant. You rolled up your sleeves and dove in, saving that man’s life. I remember watching you and realizing there was significantly more to you than how you dressed. I found you magnificent, in that moment. The clarity of the feeling was surprising to me.”<br/>
</p><p>
“I could feel your eyes on me,” Hannibal admitted. “I wondered then if you finally found me interesting enough to know.”
</p><p>
“Hurt your ego with that one, didn’t I?” Will laughed.
</p><p>
“You’ve no idea,” Hannibal chuckled. “You’re the only one who has spoken to me the way that you did and survived it.”
</p><p>
“Thank my lucky stars,” Will said, sarcasm lacing his voice as thickly as his Louisiana drawl.
</p><p>
“Why do you cover your accent?” Hannibal asked eventually. “I find it absolutely delightful when you let it slip now and again.”
</p><p>
 “Dunno,” Will said sleepily. “Kinda lost it in Quantico. Kept it at bay to sound smarter, I guess.”
</p><p>
Hannibal chuckled, kissing the top of Will’s head. “Goodnight, my love.”
</p><p>
Will sucked in a breath, waking himself up a bit. “Do not blow me in my sleep, Hannibal. Wake me up first. I hate missing out on all the fun.”
</p><p>
Hannibal laughed, “Deal.”
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter Seven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next few days passed with a comforting ease. Will could see his life with this man, could easily imagine their passion for one another consuming them for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>Chiyoh did not return for three days and Will assumed that was because some of the things she would need were far away from where they were. Will’s package arrived, and thankfully Hannibal was outside in the pool when it did. Hannibal had been spending quite a bit of time in the pool doing his relentless laps, and his already impressive physique was already even more toned, much to Will’s dismay. As if he needed more reasons to sate his urge to touch him.</p>
<p>Will took the box to their room and opened it discreetly, pulling out the small, blue, plug nervously. It was silicone, the texture rigid, yet silky enough that he was certain it wouldn’t be terribly uncomfortable. Apparently, you just pressed it in, the flat end resting against your ass as the widest part just stayed inside you. Will’s mouth was dry as he considered it, trying to imagine Hannibal’s face when he discovered such a thing, sheathed inside Will’s loosened body.</p>
<p>“Who am I?” Will chuckled as he wrapped it in a sock in his drawer before shredding and discarding the box it came in. </p>
<p>When Chiyoh arrived, she came bearing folders and a small briefcase, a rolling suitcase trailing behind her as she walked into the dining area. </p>
<p>“It’s good to see you,” Hannibal greeted her.</p>
<p>She smiled, setting the paperwork and boxes down. “As it is to see you. I apologize for the time it took. Some things ended up taking longer than expected.”</p>
<p>Hannibal shook his head as he and Will sat with her at the dining table. “It’s perfectly fine, my dear girl.”</p>
<p>“I’ve done some research, which I will go over with you first,” she began. “Bedelia is still at the address she was living at before your escape. She has not moved, nor has she sought refuge in a safehouse. She is either stupid, or incredibly brave.”</p>
<p>Hannibal chuckled as his eyes sought out Will’s own, “I believe a combination of both in equal measure.”</p>
<p>“I’m also still unable to locate Alana Bloom’s safehouse,” She said carefully.</p>
<p>“There’s no need to pursue her any further, as Will and I have discussed it, and found she has earned her life in exchange for leaving us be.”</p>
<p>Chiyoh squinted, “If you’re certain.”</p>
<p>“He is,” Will interrupted meaningfully.</p>
<p>She glared openly at Will but continued. “These are your passports and plane tickets directly into Baltimore. You are both declared dead at this point, you will not be on any FBI’s most wanted lists in any airports. We are going to try to keep it that way until you are back here, safely. You will arrive at Bedelia’s house on Saturday morning, two days from now, at 10am. This will give you exactly twelve hours to do whatever you need to do, there. I will pick you up at 10pm and drive you immediately back to the airport where you will board a plane for 1130. This is where your flights will become confusing, so as to lose your trail. Make no mistake, this will be a long few days for you both.”</p>
<p>Hannibal nodded, looking over the flight arrangements and cars left for driving to the following locations. “It should also be noted that when I make the call at 6am on Sunday morning, before Bedelia wakes up, that you two will lose all freedom you have earned. Traveling will become much more difficult, after that.”</p>
<p>“I can sail,” Will said quietly. “I sailed from the US to Europe alone to find Hannibal before. If we had a boat, I could get us anywhere in the world, unnoticed by anyone.”</p>
<p>Hannibal’s eyes were full of pride as he regarded him, while Chiyoh rolled hers, “We will worry about that when the time comes to it.” She turned back to Hannibal, pushing the briefcase over to him. “Surgical supplies and medications. You will be traveling as a doctor who has an epileptic patient with him.” Hannibal chuckled before he could contain it behind his elegant fingers, raising Will’s hackles in the process.</p>
<p>“You’re fucking joking, right?” Will asked tartly.</p>
<p>“It all can be checked into a flight, so long as the necessary paperwork has been filled out, which it has,” she said as she slid the folder over to Will. “Once I drop you off at her residence, I will run the few errands for the gift basket as well as the other… ingredients you requested. I should be back by 1130, the latest.”</p>
<p>“What would I do without you?” Hannibal asked her, his hand wrapping around hers while his eyes twinkled charmingly. </p>
<p>She huffed, pulling her hand from his, but her eyes were amused. “Starve, most likely.”</p>
<p>Hannibal laughed, straightening the paperwork on the table neatly as he did. She stood up, “I also brought you some wine.” She tapped at the rolling suitcase by her feet. “I know I’ve been neglectful in finding some that suits your tastes. I’ve been terribly busy.”</p>
<p>“You are an angel, Chiyoh. Thank you,” Hannibal praised.</p>
<p>Her mouth quirked as she looked at him, her hand resting briefly on his shoulder before she left. “Be ready to leave by three am on Saturday morning,” she called from the doorway. “We have flights to catch.”</p>
<p>“I forget that you’re closer to her than I think, sometimes.” Will said quietly from the other side of the table.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s eyebrows rose, “Don’t be jealous of her, Will.”</p>
<p>“I’m not,” he lied, voice tinged with annoyance. “I’m your epileptic patient. Again. What a funny joke, by the way.”</p>
<p>Hannibal rolled his eyes, standing to pour himself another cup of coffee. “I didn’t decide that detail, she did. There’s no need to be angry at me for it.”</p>
<p>“You fucking laughed,” Will spat. “How funny it is to laugh at my expense, when the last time I was your epileptic patient you were causing it.”</p>
<p>Hannibal sighed wearily. “Are we going to fight about the past again, Will?”</p>
<p>“No,” Will bellowed, standing up to pace the dining area.  “I just don’t like that you found it funny.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Hannibal said eventually. “Really, Will. I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking.”</p>
<p>“It’s just…” Will sighed, leaning on the back of a dining chair and looking away. “She already sees me as <i>less</i> than you. She doesn’t trust me; she doesn’t see me as something permanent in your life. Don’t make me a joke in front of her, too.” Will pleaded, his throat constricting with a swallow as he turned his head away from Hannibal’s too-penetrating stare.</p>
<p>Hannibal set the coffee cup down, his long fingers rubbing absently at his jaw as he continued to stare at Will. He walked over slowly, Will rolling his eyes as he took Will’s face and turned it so he could look into his eyes. “Forgive me,” Hannibal asked, voice full of contrition. “I’ll speak to Chiyoh soon about who you are to me, and how you aren’t going anywhere, ever. We haven’t really had the opportunity to speak of it since we’ve arrived here. It is a regrettable decision on my part, and I plan to rectify it as soon as possible.”</p>
<p>Will nodded once, his glassy eyes looking down quickly. “Alright,” he licked his lips, eyebrows raising slightly. “Thank you for that.”</p>
<p>“I’m in love with you, Will. Never forget it.”</p>
<p>Will’s eyes raised back to his, the harder planes of Will’s face softening a bit. “I know it,” he said quietly, raising his hands to smooth out the sleeve of Hannibal’s gray button down. “And I love you, even when you piss me off sometimes.”</p>
<p>Hannibal chuckled, his arms going around Will’s waist and dragging the stubborn man against his body. “I’m glad to hear it.”</p>
<p>The next day was spent packing and getting ready, the both of them wanting to finish early enough to get some sleep before they’d be heading out the door for three am.</p>
<p>Hannibal went to pack a garment bag for the dinner at Bedelia’s home and urged Will to do the same. Will rolled his eyes as he glared into his closet, not particularly giving a shit about what outfit he wore as he ate Bedelia’s leg.</p>
<p>His fingers reached out to touch an inky black suit jacket, very slim-fitting, and he bit his lip. Maybe dressing up would be worth while for her to see how well they fit together? The thought hadn’t occurred to him before this. He pulled the black suit out, as well as the slim-fit black slacks. He fingered through his button-downs before pulling a black button down out as well, the fabric soft as butter against his fingertips.</p>
<p>He hated ties and decided he wouldn’t bring one. He packed the suit into his garment bag, zipping it up before Hannibal could see it and comment on the lack of color.</p>
<p>He went into the bathroom and regarded his reflection, his hair still quite short, and his stubble a little unruly. Will dug out a razor and trimmed the lines of his beard into straight edges, giving the beard a deliberate neatness to it.</p>
<p>Hannibal came in as he was finishing, his eyes hungry as they looked Will over in the mirror. “I’ve always liked when you had a short beard like that but kept it tidy. It makes you look dangerous, in a way.”<br/>Will laughed hollowly, “I don’t feel dangerous. I feel fragile. Like I’m on the edge of a precipice where there is no returning from.”</p>
<p>“If you do not want to do this, Will, we don’t have to.”</p>
<p>“I want this,” Will sighed, pulling the towel from his bare shoulders and wiping the remaining shaving cream from his face. He turned towards Hannibal and leaned against the counter, his long fingers gliding along his throat absently. “I’m… excited at the very idea of the world knowing who I am, and who I’ve chosen. I like that my legacy will be that I was Hannibal the Cannibal’s murder husband.” He laughed uneasily.</p>
<p>Hannibal stepped forward, trailing the back of his knuckles down Will’s torso, tracing every fine crevice of muscle with his fingers. “But you aren’t <i>my</i> husband, are you?” Hannibal whispered lowly, jealously, against Will’s neck. “Not in any way that matters, you do not belong to me in that way.”</p>
<p>Will huffed, pulling away from him. “What can I do about it? I can’t exactly file for divorce, now can I?”</p>
<p>“There’s a hypocrisy in your unending possessiveness over me, Will. When the only thing that keeps me from truly claiming you in front of the world is out of my reach because you are already pledged to another. Because you are already someone else’s husband,” he spat, mouth sucking a jealous bruise against Will’s throat, and Will tipped his head back to allow it. </p>
<p>“You’d want to marry me?” Will asked. “Do you know how annoying I am?”</p>
<p>“I am aware of it, and I would marry you in a moment, Will. If for no other reason than to see my ring on your finger. To know the world recognized that we were together, and that you were mine.”<br/>Will bit his lip and looked away, “I wish I could give that to you.”</p>
<p>“If you were a widower, you could.”</p>
<p>“<i>Hannibal</i>,” Will pleaded, his eyes watering as they looked up at the older man. “Please don’t ask me to do that. It would kill me. Please,” he begged quietly.</p>
<p>Hannibal inhaled deeply, his eyes flicking away from Will’s glassy ones. “I promised you I would not, and I will not ask anything of you that you do not wish to give.”</p>
<p>Will wrapped his arms around Hannibal, pressing his face to his throat and inhaling his scent. “Thank you,” he said reverently. </p>
<p>“We should try to get some sleep,” Hannibal noted dismissively. “I’ve made us a few sandwiches. We can eat and try to get some rest afterwards.”</p>
<p>Later, Will picked at his sandwich, trying his best to figure out how to correct the weirdness between them after their conversation in the bathroom. Will decided the best course of action would be to let it pass, for now. </p>
<p>In their bed, Hannibal remained distant, feigning sleep to avoid Will altogether. Will found the entire thing distasteful, so he straddled Hannibal’s waist, and pinned him to the bed with his hands. “What are you doing, Will? Get some sleep.”</p>
<p>“I want you to tell me how I can fix this between us. You have me, Hannibal. No ring or piece of paper will keep me here anymore meaningfully than this promise to you. I will never leave you. I am in love with you. Do you hear me?”</p>
<p>Hannibal gazed up at him, his eyes softening around the edges only a little. “I know that,” he admitted softly. “Yet it’s all I want.”</p>
<p>Will shook his head, leaning forward to drag their mouths together, letting their tongues slide and taste for a moment before he pulled away. “All you want is right <i>here</i>,” he whispered. “I am right here. All I want is you, Hannibal. We are together, and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>Hannibal sighed, reaching up to wrap his arms around Will’s neck and drag him down against his body, ravishing his mouth with his own. “Love does make me a fool, doesn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Apparently,” Will laughed and leaned forward to nip at Hannibal’s jaw. “But it does the same to me, too. We’re about to take off to eat your old girlfriend’s leg because I’m jealous. I’m not one to point fingers right now.”</p>
<p>Hannibal’s laugh jiggled them on the bed, each of them sharing a chuckle at the audacity of it. “We have to sleep,” Will lamented.</p>
<p>“Yes, we must be up in five hours, and who knows when we will sleep after that.”</p>
<p>“Mm,” Will agreed, sliding off of Hannibal reluctantly. He inched close and tucked himself against Hannibal’s side and wrapped his arm around his waist to nuzzle his face into his chest.</p>
<p>The alarm startled Will awake, and he groaned as he flopped back to the mattress, earning a sleepy chuckle from Hannibal. “Let’s go, Will.”</p>
<p>The next few hours were a haze of car rides and airports, flights where he nodded off and woke back up in time be herded into another car, this time in Baltimore. </p>
<p>Will was more awake now, watching the familiar sights roll by their windows from inside the car. </p>
<p>Bedelia’s home was the only one on the private drive, much to Will’s disbelief. “It’s like she has a death wish,” he remarked dryly. </p>
<p>Chiyoh let them out just before rounding the corner to the house, Hannibal taking a moment to unpack their clothes and necessities onto the grass. “I’ll return in an hour or so,” she called from the front seat. “If anything at all changes, call me.”</p>
<p>Hannibal nodded, and Will picked up his small backpack, as well as the rolling briefcase with surgical supplies. Hannibal turned to Will, his eyes wide and dark with the thrill of it. “I will get inside. Wait five minutes, then come to the front door. I’ll be ready,” he promised.</p>
<p>Will’s heart was slamming in his chest as he nodded, watching Hannibal dip low in the brush along the side of the house, making his way quietly towards the back door.</p>
<p>Will waited the five minutes before jogging towards the front door, Hannibal opening it with a flourish as he walked up the steps. “That was quick,” Will remarked.</p>
<p>“She was still in bed. It seems she had a bottle of cognac last night.  I stuck the needle in her neck before she even realized I was here.”</p>
<p>Will chuckled as he set their things down in the grand foyer. “She is in for a huge surprise,” he laughed. “I need to use a restroom.”</p>
<p>Hannibal glanced around, “I don’t know where it is, so you should just go search for it, Will. Social niceties are on hold for the moment.” </p>
<p>Will nodded but kept his backpack with him as he walked down the foyer, and into the large living room. Towards the back wall, there was a door, and Will was thankful to find it was a half-bath.<br/>Once inside, Will relieved himself and washed his hands, reaching into his backpack for the plug. His fingers shook as he undid his pants, pulling a leg up on the toilet seat to slide it inside himself, wincing at the stretch of it around the thickest part. It settled against his entrance, and Will groaned at how uncomfortable he was about to be for a few hours.</p>
<p>He washed his hands quickly, shifting his feet experimentally at the foreign object in his body.</p>
<p>It would be worth it, though.</p>
<p>Will emerged and found Hannibal in the dining room, a clean tablecloth over the table, and surgical instruments spread across the edge of it. Bedelia was laid out on the table, her nightgown cut to expose her left thigh. Hannibal was attaching an IV to her hand, several bags of fluid already hanging from the small IV pole that had been packed in the supply bag. </p>
<p>“You’ve been busy,” Will commented, his throat dry.</p>
<p>“I’m ready when you are, Will.”</p>
<p>Will walked over slowly, standing in front of Hannibal by the table. “I’d like to make the first cut,” Will admitted. “Will you show me?”</p>
<p>Hannibal’s eyes glittered at him, his mouth turned up in pride. “Of course.”</p>
<p>Hannibal placed the scalpel in Will’s hand, turning their bodies so Hannibal’s hand rested over Will’s. “You’ll want to apply slight pressure. It won’t take much. We will go in at an angle, leaving me extra skin to make her a flap for prosthesis later.”</p>
<p>Will nodded, his nerve endings on fire. “She won’t wake up?”</p>
<p>Hannibal shook his head, scenting Will’s neck quickly before pulling away. “She is under a very strong sedative, Will. One being given through the IV. She will not feel it or wake up from it.”</p>
<p>“What do I smell like right now?” Will asked.</p>
<p>Hannibal nuzzled Will’s throat again, sighing against his skin. “You smell like a thunderstorm in a downpour. Elemental and addicting,” Hannibal groaned. “Shall we?”</p>
<p>“Please,” Will whispered. </p>
<p>With that, Hannibal pressed their hands down, carving into milk-white flesh, separating it like a hot knife through warm butter. There was hardly any blood, and Will’s eyes glanced up her thigh to note the tourniquet tied just under the edge of her cut nightgown. It felt like Will’s vision had gone into technicolor. His eye site was more acute, his sense of smell taking in the coppery tang of blood and the clean, cedar scent of the beautiful man against his back. Every one of his senses were amplified, like his body was waking up from a dream state. It was intoxicating.</p>
<p>Will made the cut all the way around, and Hannibal praised his work. “You did beautifully, but I will take over now. There are blood vessels that must be tied off. Watch me, Will.”</p>
<p>As if he would look at anything else when something so magnificent was happening in front of him. Hannibal’s fingers worked quickly, but efficiently. He would have made a very good medical doctor, and maybe even a better surgeon. Hannibal took the bone saw, severing the thigh bone quickly. Will watched raptly as Hannibal folded the skin around the stump, stitching the appendage closed beautifully. <br/>The doorbell rang twice, and Hannibal glanced up at Will. “That would be Chiyoh, if you don’t mind.”</p>
<p>“Sure,” Will agreed.</p>
<p>He answered the door with bloody hands, Chiyoh regarding him with a note of surprise on her delicate features. “You haven’t run for the hills,” she said with wonder in her voice.</p>
<p>“No,” Will agreed. “nor do I have any intention of it.”</p>
<p>She sucked her teeth and nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. Wash your hands and come help me with the stuff in the car.”</p>
<p>Will walked to the kitchen sink and scrubbed his hands, before making his way outside. He carried a large gift basket inside, chuckling to himself at the grandiosity of it. He set it on the kitchen island and watched Chiyoh carry in a few bags of groceries. “Tell Hannibal he’ll have to do the kalua in the oven, there’s no firepit outside, not even a grill.”</p>
<p>“He’ll be devastated,” Will chuckled.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she agreed. “If you finish earlier, just call. I’ve left the wheelchair in the foyer.”</p>
<p>Will nodded as she left, taking the time to unpack the groceries. From the other room, he noted the sound of a bone saw for a moment, before Hannibal emerged with a leg in his hands, sans a foot.<br/>“You may go shower if you’d like. I’ll just be busy in the kitchen for a bit.”</p>
<p>Will nodded. “Should we get her to a bed?”</p>
<p>“She will be fine where she is, for now.”</p>
<p>Will went upstairs slowly, taking in all of her pretentious things. Things she had purchased cashing in on her story of surviving a monster. The fact that they had succeeded in this so far brought a smile to Will’s lips.</p>
<p>He took a leisurely shower, washing his hair carefully and lathering his body. He pulled the plug out and washed himself there, as well as the device, before sliding it back in. Once out of the shower, he fixed the over-night stubble on the sharp lines of his beard with a razor, taking pride in the feral reflection of the man in the mirror.</p>
<p>He changed into a clean tee shirt and slacks, before heading back downstairs to help Hannibal set up.</p>
<p>Hannibal was meticulous. He carried Bedelia back to her bedroom, carefully adjusting her sedation, before heading back downstairs. The two washed the dining table and cleaned and packed away all of the surgical supplies. Will packed all of the surgical waste and the ruined table cloth into a black garbage bag while Hannibal sanitized the table, then began setting it. </p>
<p>They worked together in perfect silence, yet also in perfect synchrony. If there was any doubt that Will belonged with this man, this was proof enough that he did.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s eyes sought his as they worked their way around the table, each placing plates and silverware meticulously at each place setting.</p>
<p>Will smirked, licking his bottom lip as they watched each other. </p>
<p>The smell coming from the kitchen already was mouth-watering, and Will said so.</p>
<p>“It’s traditionally done in a fire-pit,” Hannibal lamented. “I had to make do.”</p>
<p>Once the table was set, and wine was chilling in the fridge, they made their way to the kitchen island where the gift basket sat. Hannibal pulled a perfectly written envelope from his bag, addressed to Jack Crawford.</p>
<p>“Would you like to read it?” Hannibal asked.</p>
<p>Will nodded, taking it from him and slipping the unsealed envelope open to pull the elegant letter out.<br/><i></i></p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i><br/>“Dearest Jack,</i>
  </p>
  <p>
    <i>I wanted to take the time to thank you for your endless determination in bringing us back together, time and time again.</i>
  </p>
  <p>
    <i>If it weren’t for your tenacity, we would never be where we are now. Will and I would undoubtedly still be living shadow-lives, never realizing our full potential, nor the depth of our feelings for one another.</i>
  </p>
  <p>
    <i>Do take care of yourself. We owe you everything that we are, and everything that we will become.</i>
  </p>
  <p>
    <i>There are leftovers in the fridge. I know how you enjoyed my cooking.</i>
  </p>
  <p>
    <i>All our best,</i>
  </p>
  <p>
    <i>Hannibal &amp; Will”<br/></i>
  </p>
</div>“Of course, you would antagonize him,” Will said with a chuckle.<p>Hannibal’s eyes widened as he watched Will put the letter back in the envelope before he licked it sealed with the flat of his tongue. He placed it delicately against the fruit basket, pressing his fingertips into the paper deliberately.</p>
<p>“I want them to know it’s from me as much as it is you,” Will said lowly.</p>
<p>Hannibal wrapped his arms around Will, kissing his neck gently. “What did you want to do with this?” Hannibal asked, pulling his wedding ring from his pocket.</p>
<p>Will turned to him, his eyes dark and desirous as he looked up at the older man. “I’d like to leave a note,” he smirked. “Not with a paper or pen, though.”</p>
<p>Hannibal face pinched with mild confusion, and Will continued. “How much time do we have till the food is done?”</p>
<p>“Three hours, give or take. We still need to dress Bedelia and get dressed ourselves.”</p>
<p>“Let’s go write our letter, Hannibal.”</p>
<p>Will turned and walked up the stairs with Hannibal, opening a guest room door and peeking at the bed inside. He turned to Hannibal and pressed his mouth to his, just outside the door of the room. Hannibal seemed somewhat confused, so Will shucked his tee shirt in the hall just outside the door. Hannibal’s eyes widened in acknowledgement, before Will tore the button-down Hannibal was wearing off, buttons flying throughout the hallway. There would be no mistaking what had happened here.</p>
<p>Hannibal growled as Will leaned up to press their mouths together, each of them stumbling back to the bed as they tore their pants from each other’s bodies, clothing trail leading directly to the bed. <br/>Will tore the blankets from the bed, leaving only the white fitted sheet on the mattress. He always preferred a clean canvas when he began a new design.</p>
<p>Will reached down for Hannibal’s pants, pulling the gold band from the front pocket. He held it a moment, placing it on the bedside table gently. Hannibal watched him from the edge of the bed, his eyes piercing as he watched Will reach for his own pants, pulling a little bottle of lube from the pocket.</p>
<p>Will pressed Hannibal back against the mattress, straddling his hips and dragging their mouths together gently. Hannibal wove his fingers into Will’s hair, tipping his head back gently to suckle at his favorite spot on Will’s throat.</p>
<p>“I want you to make me come twice,” Will said lowly, earning him a groan from the man under him. “I want my come all over this bed, do you understand? And then, when you finish, you’ll do it on the mattress.”</p>
<p>Hannibal growled as he palmed Will’s ass, dragging their cocks together harshly. “Anything, Will,” he sighed.</p>
<p>“Get me ready for you,” Will demanded.</p>
<p>Hannibal reached for the lube, coating his fingers as their mouths devoured one another’s. Hannibal reached between Will’s cheeks, stilling as he found the foreign object there. “What is this?”</p>
<p>Will blushed hotly, an embarrassed chuckle escaping his throat. “I thought it would be fun, a little surprise.”</p>
<p>Hannibal mouth was open as he flipped them, turning Will onto his stomach and nudging his knees apart so he could look.</p>
<p>Hannibal pressed at the flat surface resting against Will’s ass, and Will moaned. “It’s blue,” he remarked with a disbelieving chuckle.</p>
<p>Will laughed against the sheets, “I figured you’d appreciate that.”</p>
<p>Hannibal pulled it out gently, his fingers pressing into the loosened hole with ease. “You’re trying to kill me. Shock me into a cardiac episode.”</p>
<p>Will chuckled as he tossed Hannibal back to the bed, straddling him again. Will took the lube from the bed again, coating his own fingers as he reached under himself and slicked Hannibal’s cock liberally. He braced one hand against Hannibal’s chest as the other held Hannibal’s length up, his body sinking down with a mild stretch around Hannibal’s cock.</p>
<p>Both men groaned with startled pleasure, and Will wasted no time as he began to ride him.</p>
<p>Hannibal was wrecked under him, his face reddened and sweating, mouth slack in pleasure. Will adjusted his hips, drilling the spot inside himself as he rode Hannibal roughly, both men clawing at one another, before Hannibal wrapped his fingers around Will’s cock and tugged.</p>
<p>“Fuck,” Will moaned, body lit up with pleasure. “You feel good.”</p>
<p>Hannibal gripped his hips tightly, head thrown back in rapture, “Come for me, Will.”</p>
<p>Will slammed down over him, spine arching sinfully as he came, a loud wail escaping his throat as he did. Hannibal licked his lips at all the come across his chest, and Will slapped his hands away. “Do not,” he laughed, earning a pout from the older man.</p>
<p>Will lifted himself from Hannibal carefully, his body somewhat sore from the athletic sex. Will rolled Hannibal onto his stomach, effectively smearing all of his come onto the mattress in the process, before he straddled Hannibal’s thighs, leaning over his back to kiss at his spine. As Will worked his way lower, Hannibal groaned and pulled his knees up, knowing exactly where Will was going with this. Will chucked as he licked a bead of sweat from the small of his back, before he spread Hannibal with his fingers and licked in.</p>
<p>Hannibal arched against the gentle tongue probing his entrance, and Will grinned against the side of his ass at the heady feeling of being owned by this man and owning him so completely in turn.<br/>Will dove back in, sucking greedily at the muscle, pressing the tip of his tongue in and out lewdly as his fingers came underneath to roll his testicles and jerk his cock.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s forehead dropped to the mattress, long moans of pleasure rocking him as he shifted his hips in search of relief. Will’s own cock had taken interest again, not that Will was especially shocked.<br/>“I’m going to come, Will,” Hannibal warned.</p>
<p>Will hummed against his entrance in approval, and Hannibal spilled against the sheets, pulsing streaks across the mattress. Hannibal rolled away from the mess, pulling Will down on top of him. “You’re an irresistible creature,” Hannibal sighed, pressing his lips reverently to Will’s forehead. </p>
<p>Will grinned against Hannibal’s neck, his fingers trailing down his ribs. “Did you like the plug? We can leave it here.”</p>
<p>Hannibal groaned at the very thought of them finding such a thing in this room. “Do you want them to know such intimate details as that?”</p>
<p>Will shrugged, “I could put it inside of you, too. Let them try and figure that one out.”</p>
<p>Hannibal laughed, eyes twinkling in the low light of the room. “Do it.”</p>
<p>Will reached out for the plug, forgotten on the edge of the bed. Hannibal spread his thighs, drawing his knees up enough for Will to slide the object in slowly, grinning at the small pinch of discomfort on the older man’s face. “How long had you been wearing this?” </p>
<p>Will chuckled, “Since we got here.”</p>
<p>“Minx,” Hannibal laughed.</p>
<p>“I can take it out if you’d like. The both of us are officially all over it.”</p>
<p>“Leave it,” he offered. “I might be ready to go again in a few minutes and it’ll make it easier on you.”</p>
<p>Will smiled and leaned over to kiss him soundly, letting their tongues drag sinuously for a few minutes. Sure enough, they were both aching with renewed urgency. Will reached between Hannibal’s thighs and pulled the plug out gently, throwing it off the side of the bed. He lubed his fingers and pressed his fingers tenderly into the slightly stretched hole. They both sighed at the sensation, Hannibal drawing a leg up to make more room for Will’s fingers. Will leaned over him, brushing the fingertips of his other hand against sharp cheekbones, then tracing the line of his jaw before cupping his chin and tugging his mouth to his own. Hannibal sighed into his mouth as Will worked another finger in, curling them up to find the place that would bring him pleasure. </p>
<p>Hannibal tugged Will’s head back with fingers woven into his hair, suckling bruises into Will’s throat and collarbone as he added another finger inside Hannibal’s body.</p>
<p>Will crawled between his thighs, holding the back of his knees up slightly as he removed his fingers and exchanged them with his cock, both men sighing in pleasure as Will sunk in a bit, adding a bit of lube to his fingers to spread around the base of his length and against Hannibal’s entrance.</p>
<p>Once fully sheathed inside of Hannibal, they both stilled, looking over one another wondrously. Fingertips traced one another’s faces and bodies, each reveling in the feel of the other before Will began to move.</p>
<p>He dragged his hips lazily, nudging the spot inside Hannibal delicately. Hannibal’s head fell to the mattress, his fingers gripping the sheet tightly as Will added more lube to his palm, heating it a bit before wrapping the slickened fingers around Hannibal’s cock.</p>
<p>“<i>Will</i>,” he moaned in approval, his back arching with the newest pleasure Will was giving him.</p>
<p>“Do you <i>feel</i> this between us?” Will asked, his voice ruined. “Fuck it’s so good.”</p>
<p>Will’s hips snapped more purposefully, his head rolling back with the friction while Hannibal’s legs came up to hold Will around his waist. Will grabbed at his legs, hoisting them over his forearms and bent him in half, using the new leverage to pound into him in time with his fist around Hannibal’s cock.</p>
<p>Hannibal arched suddenly, shouting as his release took him, and Will pulled out abruptly to ejaculate on the bed instead of deep inside Hannibal where he preferred.</p>
<p>They both lay for a moment, catching their breath with smiles on their faces. “We should shower and change,” Hannibal said exhaustedly. “All I’d like to do is go to sleep.”</p>
<p>Will leaned over him, smearing the come on his chest and abdomen with his fingers and wiping it against the sheets, earning him a tired laugh from the older man. Will stood from the bed, pulling Hannibal along with him as they turned to look at their work.</p>
<p>There was absolutely no doubting what had happened here. Will took the ring from the end table and placed it in the center of the mattress, the metal glinting against the spattered canvas.</p>
<p>“Is this the reciprocity you were hoping for?” Will asked.</p>
<p>“Better,” Hannibal praised. </p>
<p>“Leave our clothes here. Let them follow the breadcrumbs.”</p>
<p>They took turns showering, Hannibal going first so he could leave afterwards to get Bedelia ready.</p>
<p>Will reached for the garment bag after his shower, sliding into the slim-fitting pants and shrugging on the soft button down, leaving the collar open enough to see the bruises left by Hannibal’s mouth. He tucked the shirt into the pants neatly, regarding himself in the mirror as he did. </p>
<p>He looked lean and dangerous, he decided. He took a moment to arrange his hair, a few gentle waves around the front where his hair was trying to become a curl. Reaching for the blazer, he shrugged it on, and slid his feet into his black dress shoes.</p>
<p>He took a moment to smooth the collar of his dress shirt, before leaving the bathroom to find Hannibal.</p>
<p>Will’s fists clenched when he did find him in the dining area, dressing Bedelia in a gorgeous evening gown, his elegant fingers dressing her almost reverently. “Do you have to touch her?” Will asked lowly.</p>
<p>Hannibal startled, his eyes snapping up and pausing on Will’s appearance, mouth slack at the view he found. “Will,” he breathed.</p>
<p>The jealousy swirling in Will settled a bit at the possessive look Hannibal was giving him, but it did manage to hang on. “Did you have to pick such a revealing dress? Are you trying to provoke me into killing her?” Will asked, his voice gone flat.</p>
<p>Hannibal sighed, settling her limp body into the wheelchair in the dining room. “I bought her this dress in Florence,” he explained. “I thought it would be fitting for her to have a reason to wear it again.”</p>
<p>“Did you touch her as you dressed her?” Will asked.</p>
<p>“I’m not a sexual deviant, Will. No, I didn’t <i>touch</i> her.”</p>
<p>Will took a measured breath, eyes trailing towards the dining table. “Do you need help with anything?”</p>
<p>“The roast is resting on the counter. If you’d like to help me shuck a few oysters for her, I have a few acorns roasting in the oven at the moment. You could also open the wine for me.”</p>
<p>Will nodded and went into the kitchen, taking the bag of oysters out of the fridge where they rested on a bowl of ice. Hannibal stood at the kitchen doorway, eyes sliding down Will meaningfully. “There are no words to describe your beauty in this moment,” he said reverently.</p>
<p>Will glared up at him, sliding a knife into an oyster to separate the shell. “All I’m thinking about right now is fucking you against the dining table when she wakes up.”</p>
<p>Hannibal laughed, his long fingers smoothing down the burgundy knot of his tie. “As I’ve said, you do look good in green, too.”</p>
<p>Hannibal shrugged out of his gray blazer, folding it carefully to rest it on the back of the kitchen island chair as he rolled his sleeves up and took the serving platter to the island. Will watched him move around the kitchen easily, balancing several tasks without difficulty. </p>
<p>Will went to the oven and removed the small pan with acorns, shutting the oven off and placing them in the small, silver, serving dish, along with a nutcracker. “Do these even taste good?” Will wondered.</p>
<p>Hannibal chuckled as he arranged the roast. “You may try one, but I’d prefer you never eat oysters or acorns in my presence.”</p>
<p>“Have no interest in knowing that I would taste good, Doctor Lecter?” Will teased.</p>
<p>Hannibal stilled, a white rose in his hand as he was dressing the serving platter. “I never want you to think for a moment that I’d do this to you.”</p>
<p>“I know you wouldn’t,” Will assured him. “Not when there are so many more creative ways of <i>tasting</i> me.”</p>
<p>Hannibal groaned from the island, a chuckle making its way from the back of his throat. “Should I keep myself buried inside you for the rest of my life? Tell me, Will. Would that sate your appetite?”</p>
<p>Will bit his lip, hands arranging the plate with oysters and acorns artfully. “We could try it, see how it goes.”</p>
<p>“Enchanting,” Hannibal grinned. “I’ll bring this to the table and be right back.”</p>
<p>Will nodded as he finished plating for Bedelia before walking to the fridge and taking out a bottle of marsala. He took the room temperature cabernet-shiraz blend from the wine rack and brought them both to the kitchen island to open them. </p>
<p>Hannibal rejoined him after a moment, coming up behind him and pressing himself to Will’s back. “She will be waking up any moment,” he said lowly. Will tipped his head to the side as he opened the wine bottles, allowing Hannibal to nuzzle at his throat. Will took the corkscrew with the shiraz cork still attached and brought it over his shoulder for Hannibal to smell, which he did eagerly.</p>
<p>“Marvelous,” Hannibal sighed. Will turned in his arms, dropping the corkscrew on the counter to grab at Hannibal’s face, pulling it towards his own. Their mouths dragged together for a moment, each savoring one another.</p>
<p>Hannibal pulled away reluctantly, fingers rolling his sleeves down and buttoning them before he fluffed his blazer gently and slid it over his broad shoulders. “This night is for you, Will. Whatever you’d like, know that I am with you.”</p>
<p>Will smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. The way I feel right now, I don’t know what I want.”</p>
<p>“We’ll see where the night takes us,” he said airily. “Shall we?”</p>
<p>They made their way into the dining room, where Bedelia was decidedly awake, now. Will poured her a glass of marsala and placed the plate of oysters in front of her, smirking at her as he did. </p>
<p>She watched him hatefully, mouth pursed with distaste as she dragged her eyes over him. “Sliding into the role of Bluebeard’s wife so easily,” she taunted. “Although the new wife helping to dispatch the old one is a twist.” She turned to Hannibal, who was serving her leg to Will and himself. “Although you always did enjoy playing with your food.”</p>
<p>Will settled into his dining chair comfortably, fingers unbuttoning his blazer as he did. “He wanted to kill you,” Will told her with a smirk. “The only reason you’re alive is because I am allowing it.”</p>
<p>“You’ve always believed that you’re in control of the situation,” she slurred, still a bit under the anesthesia. “Your biggest fault lies in your belief that you are the smartest person in the room.”</p>
<p>Will grinned, reaching out to take the plate being offered by Hannibal’s hand. “I’ve never thought that about myself,” he admitted. “And there is no situation that I feel the need to control between Hannibal and I. Maybe that used to be the case, but thanks to you I realized my feelings for him in a visceral way that I never had before.”</p>
<p>Hannibal stilled as he brought a glass of wine to his nose to smell it. “How is that?”</p>
<p>Bedelia rolled her eyes, taking a generous mouthful of marsala as she did. “Your newest pet asked me if you were in love with him. I told him that you were. He misunderstood me, thinking that made him unique in some way.”</p>
<p>Will’s eyes darkened as he looked at her, raising a fork-full of her leg to his lips and sliding it into his mouth sinfully. Her breathing was labored from the end of the table, and he smirked around the tender morsel in his mouth. “Delicious,” Will praised.</p>
<p>“You hadn’t told me of that conversation,” Hannibal said, turning to Will as he took a delicate bite from his plate. </p>
<p>Will’s eyes left Bedelia, softening as they regarded Hannibal. “It was a turning point for me. She asked me if I ached for you as you did for me, and I realized that I did. It was the exact moment that I decided I would get you out, somehow.”</p>
<p>“My love for you is consuming, Will.” Hannibal said reverently. </p>
<p>Will smiled and held his hand out, their fingers clasping momentarily on the table. “Yes,” Bedelia said sarcastically as her eyes took in the bruises on Will’s throat. “It certainly seems you’ve been <i>consuming</i> him.”</p>
<p>Will stood as he finished his plate, taking his glass of wine with him as he circled Bedelia. “You’ve always considered you and I as equal,” he ridiculed. “You’ve never completely understood the level of influence that I hold over him. Perhaps more concerning for you, the level of influence he has over me. You are nothing to him; not his wife, not his equal. I wanted you to know that,” Will said, his voice low and deadly as he circled just out of her range of sight. </p>
<p>“And you are not his husband,” she agreed, her eyes sliding over to Hannibal’s in an attempt to cause a rift. “Does it bother you, knowing he’s spent his time during your incarceration fucking his wife and forgetting about you? Did he tell you that he essentially kept you a dirty secret from her? A secret so filthy he didn’t want to mar the purity of their marriage by speaking of someone so beneath him.”</p>
<p>Hannibal’s grip on his wineglass tightened marginally. “He and I have spoken about this, whatever you are trying to do is useless, Bedelia.”</p>
<p>“Is it?” She asked, her delicate eyebrow raised in defiance. “I’ve never imagined you tolerating the idea of being a mistress on the side, a dirty secret all over again. There will come a point where your lack of total ownership will enslave you. This delusion you have built will shatter, and when Will wars with himself over who he’s become, he will return to his sweet wife and their son. The filth of your relationship a distant memory for Will. How many times has he rejected you now, one way or another? The definition of insanity is to repeat the same thing over and over again, yet expect different results.”</p>
<p>Will could feel Hannibal’s self-confidence in them crumbling, and the very idea that this woman could slide an icy wedge between them was too much to consider. “If he wanted to make me a widower, I would still stay with him. There is nothing he could do that would make me leave.”</p>
<p>Hannibal’s eyes darted to his, surprise and incredulity evident on his face. “That isn’t you,” Bedelia said with a mocking laugh.</p>
<p>‘It isn’t,” Will agreed, coming around the table to step behind Hannibal, his hand resting reassuringly on his shoulder. “But if it eventually came to a point where the idea of her was causing a rift, and I could feel him pulling away, I would let him do what he had to in order for him to come home to me. It would hurt me, but not enough to make me choose a life without him in it.”</p>
<p>Hannibal swallowed, his fingers sliding up to thread with Will’s over his shoulder. “I would never put him in the position of having to come to terms with such a thing,” Hannibal promised. “I would like to take her apart, removing every inch of her that has ever touched him, but I won’t. Because I love him. I would rather dismember myself than cause him the grief he would feel if I were to do such a thing. It will never come between us because I will not permit it to.”</p>
<p>Will smirked from behind Hannibal, leaning over him to drag their lips together briefly. “That’s what makes him a better man than me,” he stood again, sipping his wine delicately. “because the only reason we are here is because I hate that you think we share him.”</p>
<p>Bedelia laughed and finished the rest of her wine. “I was apparently mistaken. Who could have believed such a small, unrefined, <i>dull</i>, man would bring such a powerful man to heel?”</p>
<p>Will huffed, biting his lip to keep from laughing. “I ask myself that question every day I am with him. When he can not keep his hands off me, I wonder it. When he draws me so beautifully, it nags me. When he folds to my every whim or desire, the smallest voice in the back of my head questions how I could have gotten so lucky. He sees me, Bedelia. And I see him. There is no one else, not for either of us. You said that I will keep my wife in the dark about him, but you don’t know about the… mess he and I made in your guest bedroom. She will know who he is to me, Bedelia. Without either of us laying a hand on her. I am not ashamed of my love for him.”</p>
<p>“I look forward to reading about how he’s butchered you,” she said politely.</p>
<p>Will came to her side, hovering close to her. “You’ll be very disappointed when that doesn’t happen. Possibly because I’ll decide to kill you,” Will said menacingly.</p>
<p>She struck quickly, sinking the small fork she had hid under the table into the side of Will’s neck.</p>
<p>Will stumbled back as Hannibal shot from his seat, coming to Will’s side immediately. “Fuck,” Will moaned, touching the fork with a hiss. </p>
<p>Hannibal tipped his head, taking a clean cloth napkin from the table to press against the wound, assessing the damage. His fingers probed around the area, a comforted sigh escaping his throat. “It isn’t very deep,” he said quietly. “She missed the artery. I can remove it, but it will not be pleasant.”</p>
<p>Will groaned, “Just do it.”</p>
<p>Hannibal plucked the fork from the wound swiftly, staunching the blood flow with the cloth napkin tightly. Will swallowed as they looked at one another, their faces portraying awareness of how close they could have come to losing this.</p>
<p>After a few moments, Hannibal pulled the cloth away to inspect the wound, a low sound of displeasure in his throat at the mark it would leave. “Another scar for me,” Will said with a laugh.</p>
<p>Hannibal kissed him gently, “On my favorite part of you, no less.”</p>
<p>Hannibal turned to Bedelia, his eyes as dark and flat as the most dangerous predator. “You are very lucky that you did not kill him,” he said quietly. “I would have flayed you open for days for it, ensuring you lived through all of it as I did.”</p>
<p>Bedelia’s breath was coming in gasps as he made his way towards her, taking the knife from the roasted leg as he did. “Perhaps a matching wound for your throat? Mine will not be so small, I assure you.”<br/>Will grabbed Hannibal’s arm, shaking his head minutely. “Don’t,” he pleaded softly.</p>
<p>Hannibal’s shoulders slumped, and Bedelia sighed in relief. “It seems my beloved is determined to keep you alive. You should be endlessly grateful for his mercy because I would show you none. Thank him, Bedelia. Thank him and I will let you live.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, Will,” she said flatly.</p>
<p>Hannibal glanced at the small wound on Will’s throat, less than a half inch wide from the tiny oyster fork she had used. Hannibal reached for Will’s large dinner fork, dirty from Will’s mouth. He walked over to her and tipped her head back, jamming it exactly where she had gotten Will.</p>
<p>She screamed, and he took a needle from his pocket, uncapped it, and pressed it into her neck, her posture slumping as she slipped into unconsciousness. “She’ll live. Scarred significantly more than you will be, but she’ll live.”</p>
<p>Will came to him, wrapping his arms around his waist and pressing his ear to Hannibal’s heart. The rigidity of Hannibal’s body lessened in Will’s embrace, and he eventually wrapped his arms around Will in return. “I want to kill her,” Hannibal admitted roughly.</p>
<p>“She is jealous,” Will acknowledged. “This room is… permeated in the jealousy that swirls in her. It kills her to see us together. To know that I possess you in every manner that she has always wanted. To know that I influence you in ways that she’s only imagined herself doing is far more brutal of a punishment than allowing her to die. Believe me when I tell you that permitting her to live to hear of our future endeavors together is far crueler than death.”</p>
<p>Hannibal considered that, chuckling as he leaned forward to pull their mouths together briefly. “You’re far more insidious than I am.”</p>
<p>Will smirked against Hannibal’s lips, “You have no idea.”</p>
<p>Hannibal glanced at the clock, “We have an hour before Chiyoh arrives. I need to set up her IV, and then I must tend to your throat.”</p>
<p>Will nodded. “Should I bother cleaning up?”</p>
<p>Hannibal chuckled. “Make a plate for Uncle Jack and get it in the fridge. Leave the rest.”</p>
<p>Will portioned out a plate, wrapping it in saran wrap before setting it in the fridge with a chuckle as Hannibal finished with Bedelia’s sedative IV. Will noted that he had left the fork in her neck with a small huff of amusement.</p>
<p>Hannibal set out some antiseptic on the counter, washing his hands before he came over to Will. He watched as Hannibal opened some sterile gauze, soaking it in the chlorhexidine before tipping Will’s head back. “This will sting,” he warned as he pressed the wet gauze to the wound.</p>
<p>Will hissed, his fingers clenching against Hannibal’s side as he gently cleansed the wound. He pulled the gauze away after a moment, looking at the tiny wound with clinical eyes. “I’m going to put a stitch in it, with any luck it will not scar at all,” he said hopefully. “We are very lucky we only gave her an oyster fork.”</p>
<p>Will nodded as Hannibal soaked his hands in the antiseptic, rubbing briskly for a few moments before he opened a sterile suture kit. His fingers were exceptionally gentle as he worked the single suture in, taking his time to do it in a way that would minimize scarring. Once finished, he smoothed an antibiotic cream over the stitch, covering it with a small band-aid. </p>
<p>Will’s mouth was quirked up, eyes bright with adoration over how attentive Hannibal could be with him and only him. “I love you,” Will confessed quietly.</p>
<p>“You’re everything to me, Will. I love you dearly.” He promised. “You should at least change your shirt. There is some blood on it.”</p>
<p>“Right,” Will noted. “I have the tee shirt that I wore here. I’ll go get it.”</p>
<p>Will shucked the bloody shirt from his body, taking a moment at the bathroom sink to clean the blood from his skin where it had dripped down his chest. He reached into his backpack and took out the white tee, slipping it over his head and pulling his blazer back on. </p>
<p>The doorbell rang twice, and they gathered their things and left, closing the door behind them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter Eight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next three days were a blur of flights and driving. To lose their trail, their first flight was direct to Naples, Italy. From there, they got into a car left in the short-term parking lot that Chiyoh had left for them, and they took turns driving to Rome, where they caught a flight that brought them to Lisbon, Portugal. From there, they took turns driving the car that was left in the long-term parking lot, up the coast and into Spain. The drive took about seven hours, with them taking the time to stretch their tired muscles and wipe the sleep from their eyes.</p><p>When they finally pulled into the driveway, Will’s groan of relief made Hannibal chuckle. </p><p>They made their way inside exhaustedly, their clothes rumpled and their bodies filthy. “I had Chiyoh take care of something while we were away,” Hannibal said with a note of delight in his voice.</p><p>“That poor girl,” Will said with a laugh. “When does she sleep?”</p><p>“She didn’t do it,” Hannibal chuckled. “She merely reached out to someone who would.”</p><p>Hannibal dragged him over to Hannibal’s old bedroom door, gesturing for Will to open it.</p><p>Will walked in, surprise evident on his face as he walked into the mossy-green painted room. There were paintings on the walls of beautiful waterscapes and forests, each artfully selected to give the room a woodsy feel. </p><p>There were several extremely expensive fishing poles mounted to the walls, and a workstation against the window facing outside where a lure-making kit sat ready for Will’s hands. There was also a cd player in here, with Will’s albums arranged neatly on a pine bookshelf. The smile on Will’s face was genuine as he looked around, noting how personal the room felt. Everything in it was something that Will would have definitely chosen himself.</p><p>He turned to Hannibal, face open with joy, as he took in the far wall where a large dog bed rest on the floor. “You and Chiyoh can go to the shelter soon to pick out as many of the filthy beasts as you’d like. Just please, train them to not go on the furniture. It’s all I ask.”</p><p>Will chuckled, his eyes watering as he looked at Hannibal. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”</p><p>“You are so beautiful when you are happy like this,” Hannibal said quietly. “I will spend the rest of my days trying to get you to look the way that you do, right now.”</p><p>“Are you happy,” Will asked, his voice breaking. “Do you miss killing?”</p><p>Hannibal bit his lip, his eyes wandering to the paintings on the wall. “I am happy, Will. Sometimes I miss the thrill of the hunt, but the moments are very few and far between. I think there will come a time where you’re ready to look for monsters. And we will hunt them together.”</p><p>“I want to give that to you,” Will admitted. “We’d have to find someone worthy of us.”</p><p>Hannibal smirked, his eyes coming back to Will. “That won’t be difficult with your gift.”</p><p>“No,” Will agreed. “It won’t.”</p><p>“I haven’t taken the liberty of getting the shed you requested. I’d like to wait and see if we are able to stay here, first. We will take the time to assess whether we were careful enough before we truly settle in.”</p><p>Will nodded, “That makes sense.”</p><p>The doorbell rang twice, and Hannibal grinned. “Our dear girl has returned to us.”</p><p>They made their way into the living room as Chiyoh let herself in, relief evident on her face as she looked at Hannibal. “I’m glad you made it. I came a few hours ago and I was worried when you weren’t here yet.”</p><p>“We took a few breaks to stretch our legs,” Hannibal explained. “Thank you for everything you do.”</p><p>“It’s what family is for, is it not?”</p><p>“Yes,” Hannibal agreed, taking her hand in his and squeezing gently. “I would like a word with you, if you have a moment?”</p><p>“No,” Will interrupted. “I’d like a word. Please, Hannibal. Can you excuse us?”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyebrow arched as he turned to Will, a smile on his lips. “Of course. I’m going to shower and change, then.”</p><p>Chiyoh’s eyes were suspicious, but Will held a hand up to ask her to join him on the front porch.</p><p>She followed him outside where Will turned to her. “I want to ask you for a favor,” he said quickly.</p><p>“Alright.”</p><p>“It has to stay between you and I, please.”</p><p>“I do not keep secrets from Hannibal, Will.”</p><p>“Of course not,” he chuckled. “What I’m asking for is more along the lines of a surprise. I want you to look into how I can get divorced. I know there are ways for people to do it without seeing one another. Like in cases of domestic abuse?”</p><p>She rolled her eyes, but smiled. “That won’t protect you from being noticed by authorities.”</p><p>“No,” Will groaned. “There must be a way, though. There just has to be.”</p><p>Chiyoh regarded him carefully. “I could file for you, get the paperwork started far from here. You can sign it, and I will take it to her personally for her signature. It’ll be done, and no one will know where you are.”</p><p>Will’s mouth pinched, “I don’t want you to hurt her.”</p><p>“Nor will I. I do not have a penchant for murder, as you know.”</p><p>“If it works, I will owe you.”</p><p>“Be good to him,” Chiyoh said quietly. “That’s all I’d ask of you in return.”</p><p>“Well that’s easy.” Will laughed.</p><p>“He can make it difficult, sometimes. It shouldn’t be too hard to get her to sign the papers, judging by her reaction to the… scene the two of you left in Baltimore.”</p><p>Will blushed hotly. “I don’t know anything about it. Hannibal and I haven’t exactly had time to check the news.”</p><p>“Murder husbands spare Hannibal the Cannibal’s old flame,” she mused.</p><p>Will laughed, “I can’t wait to read about it.”</p><p>“He will wonder where I’ve been for a few days. Tell him I am cleaning up after him, which is true. I have to move the cars that you drove somewhere else. I’ll be keeping an eye on things and will call you if you need to move on. I’ve stocked the freezer and the fridge, and I think you’ll have enough produce until I return.”</p><p>“Thank you, Chiyoh.”</p><p>“Anything for family, Will.”</p><p>She walked to the car, turning to regard him favorably as she climbed in. The warm feeling in Will’s chest made him certain that anything Hannibal could have said to her would not have been as effective as the conversation they had just shared.</p><p>Will walked in just in time for Hannibal to emerge from the bathroom, still damp and dressed in linen pajama pants and a green vee neck tee.</p><p>“She told me to tell you that she’d be busy for a few days, cleaning up, but she would keep an eye on things at the same time and call if we need to move on.”</p><p>“She’s an angel,” Hannibal confirmed. </p><p>“I think she understands where I fit into your life, now.”</p><p>“Good,” Hannibal said, voice pleased. “I’m glad to hear it.”</p><p>Hannibal slumped tiredly into the couch, his head falling back against the back of it wearily. “I’m gonna shower, and then we are going to bed.”</p><p>The only response was Hannibal’s sigh of relief.</p><p> </p><p>Hannibal was in the pool four days later when the double doorbell ring made Will put down his sandwich to answer the door.</p><p>Chiyoh greeted him with a smile, a folder held in her hand. “Where is he?” she asked conspiratorially.</p><p>“Pool,” Will said quickly. “Come in.”</p><p>She went to the kitchen island quickly, flipping the folder open proudly. “Divorce papers,” she presented. “Molly signed them without issue. She was afraid of me at first, but when I told her why I was there, her anger took over. She’s got quite the temper.”</p><p>Will chuckled, “She does. Did she sign them?”</p><p>“With a flourish,” Chiyoh grinned. “She was very eager to be rid of you. You sign them, and I will get them turned in as soon as I can.”</p><p>Will took the pen from her fingers, signing along all the flags marked on each page. He was waiting for the regret to come, but it never did.</p><p>“Irreconcilable differences,” Will laughed as he noted the reason for filing. “I’d say.”</p><p>“There isn’t exactly a box for the reasons you have.”</p><p>“I guess not,” Will chuckled. “Did she… say anything?”</p><p>“Yes.” Chiyoh admitted. “She said she wished she had never met you, and that you were the biggest mistake of her life.”</p><p>“Is that all,” Will asked reproachfully, to himself more than to Chiyoh.</p><p>“She asked me if you were really a murderous cannibal. I assured her that you were, and that you were also in love with one. It was not what she wanted to hear.”</p><p>“Christ,” Will sighed. </p><p>He slid the paperwork back to Chiyoh where she double checked to ensure everything was signed appropriately before she nodded. “Congratulations, you’re soon to be divorced.”</p><p>“I have one more favor, actually.”</p><p>She rolled her eyes playfully, “You’re becoming a nuisance.”</p><p>“I’ve been one for a while, you just haven’t been paying attention.”</p><p>“I assure you that I have,” she said with mock threat in her tone.</p><p>“I would do this myself, but I can’t exactly go out shopping right now. So, I will show you.” Will took out the laptop, popping it open and clicking to a site for a jewelry store. “I’d like these,” he said, pointing to a pair of dark gray bands with sapphires inlaid in them. “One a size nine, the other very likely a nine and a half,” Will said, thinking of Hannibal’s long, slender, fingers.</p><p>She smirked as she pulled her phone out, snapping a photo of the website and the rings he preferred. “I’m beginning to like you,” she warned.</p><p>“God forbid,” he chastised as he clicked out of the website, deleting the history quickly.</p><p>“Anything else?”</p><p>“Doritos,” Will pleaded. “He won’t let me get them and I’ve been craving them. You could put the rings in the bag with the chips and he won’t touch it.”</p><p>She laughed, the clear sound echoing through the room. “When I give them to you, it will only be when the divorce is final. It will be how you know that it’s done.”</p><p>“Good idea,” he said with a smile, but with the smallest bit of resent that he’d have to wait so long for his cheddary chips.</p><p>She snatched the grocery list from the counter and left with the divorce papers as well.</p><p>Hannibal came in at that moment, toweling his hair as he came into the living room. “Was that Chiyoh I heard laughing?”</p><p>“Yeah,” he smirked. “She came for the grocery list and I told her to get me some damn Doritos.”</p><p>“Disgusting, Will.”</p><p>“You don’t have to eat them.”</p><p>Hannibal glared at him as he poured himself a glass of orange juice from the fridge, “But I’d have to smell them. They smell like dirty gym shoes,” he grimaced.</p><p>“I’ll eat them outside,” Will laughed.</p><p>A few weeks passed, Chiyoh never appearing with Doritos when she would bring groceries. </p><p>He and Hannibal had settled into their lives comfortably, and certainly passionately. Will was honestly shocked by how often they would find themselves entangled and sweaty, burying themselves in each other’s bodies. The yearning he felt was relentless, and he was thankful that the desperation seemed to go both ways.</p><p>The media was in fact, a shitstorm. Their faces were on every paper, magazine, and television outlet, and the articles always painted them as deranged murderers in love. Will wasn’t sure why this bothered him so much, as murdering people was certainly deranged, and they definitely were in love. His life with Hannibal just felt so… right. Reading about how fucked up it definitely was made him feel uneasy. Maybe outing themselves they way they did wasn’t the best idea.</p><p>There were also a few instances where Molly’s face was on the news. “To Be the Wife of a Monster,” was the headline of the article. They had taken her photo as she was dodging journalists, her face desperate to be free of the situation. Those articles always hurt Will, especially when he read the last one where she finally made a comment. “I wish he were dead.”</p><p> Strangely enough, the only articles that seemed to understand them were written by Freddie Lounds. She gloated, initially, that she was right that they were in love. Her articles slowly became her dissection of their relationship, as she had known them and spent time with the both of them all those years ago.</p><p>Hannibal could sense Will’s unease about all the media coverage, and after four days of reading all of it, he decided that they had read enough. The laptop stayed powered down, and he stopped asking Chiyoh to bring newspapers.</p><p>He and Hannibal did not pay attention to the news, after that. Which was for the best as he was certain Freddie Lounds must have caught wind of his divorce request by now. Every time Hannibal settled in front of his laptop, Will would distract him enough to forget about it. Hannibal allowed it, likely because he thought all the media coverage hurt Will.</p><p> To be frank, Will’s jaw was getting more than a little sore from the specific distraction he kept choosing.</p><p>One afternoon, Chiyoh arrived with her arms full of groceries, and Will walked over to help her bring them into the kitchen where Hannibal sat, sketching in his notebook. “I caved and brought you Doritos,” she said meaningfully.</p><p>Will stilled, smile wide as he looked at her, earning a laugh from Hannibal at the island. “Oh,” Will sighed, taking the paper bag from her hand and feeling the weight of a box at the bottom. “I adore you.” He said meaningfully, pulling her rigid body against his. “Thank you,” he whispered against her ear.</p><p>Hannibal was outright laughing now, as Chiyoh pulled away with a huff of annoyance, a truly martyred sigh escaping her lips.</p><p>Will put away the groceries, Hannibal joining him so he could rearrange the fridge for the meats, and Will dropped the small box into his pocket quickly as he crinkled the bag exaggeratedly. “You and I have a date by the pool,” he said to the bag.</p><p>Hannibal rolled his eyes, delight in his face despite himself. “There is nothing in them that is nourishing for your body, Will.”</p><p>“Soul food,” he sighed. “It soothes my soul.”</p><p>“Ridiculous creature,” Hannibal chuckled.</p><p>Saving the stinky chips for another night, Will found Hannibal into their study after dinner. “So, I have to ask you something,” Will said nervously.</p><p>“What’s that?” Hannibal asked distractedly, his fingers flipping a page in his novel.</p><p>“Put the book down, please.”</p><p>Hannibal’s mouth pursed, eyes flicking up to Will. “As much as I desire you, Will, we can take an hour without carnality now and again.”</p><p>“No,” Will said with annoyance. “That’s not what… can you please just put the damn book down?”</p><p>Hannibal sighed. “I’ve reached a good part,” he explained gently.</p><p>“Me too,” Will said, licking his lips and pacing the room anxiously.</p><p>“What is it, Will?” Hannibal asked, dropping the book to the desk, and watching Will meaningfully.</p><p>Will came over to the desk, kneeling gently to the side of Hannibal’s chair, turning it so Hannibal was facing him. “What was it that you said you wanted more than anything else, Hannibal?” Will asked quietly.</p><p>“I have all I want,” Hannibal said meaningfully, and Will shook his head.</p><p>“You said you wanted to marry me, that you wanted the world to know I was yours and that you were mine,” Will whispered.</p><p>“An impossibility,” Hannibal sighed.</p><p>Will reached into his pocket and pulled out the rings, pressing them into Hannibal’s palm. Hannibal’s breathing was labored, his eyes resting on the gorgeous jewelry in his hand. “Would you like to wear them for show? I’m not opposed to it.”</p><p>“No,” Will said quietly. “I’d like to wear them and have them mean exactly what they represent. I want you to marry me, Hannibal.”</p><p>Hannibal huffed, features pinching with frustration, “Of course I want that, Will. There’s no way.”</p><p>“I am divorced,” Will said quietly. “Chiyoh got it done for me. It’s taken weeks, but it was finalized today.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes glistened in the light of the lamp, so much vulnerability in his expression that Will was devastated by it. “Do not bait me, Will.”</p><p>Will chuckled, his own eyes glistening, “I’m not. Although I am starting to feel silly, sitting here asking you to marry me while you dance around it like this.”</p><p>“You’re divorced,” Hannibal tried out, and Will nodded, “and you’re asking me to marry you.”</p><p>“Apparently,” Will laughed.</p><p>“You did this for me.”</p><p>“Not just you. I’m fairly possessive of you, in case you hadn’t noticed.”</p><p>“Yes, Will.”</p><p>“Yes, you’d noticed or yes, you’ll marry me?”</p><p>Hannibal laughed, “<i>Insufferable</i> man. Both.”</p><p>Will grinned and leaned up, pressing his mouth to Hannibal’s eagerly. Hannibal tugged him into his lap, his fist gripping the rings tightly. Will pulled away and they regarded each other, eyes bright and adoring. “Do you like them?” Will asked.</p><p>Hannibal opened his palm as if only just seeing them for the first time. “I love them,” he said honestly. </p><p>“We are going to have to figure out how to do it,” Will said eventually, his mouth kissing tenderly at Hannibal’s throat. </p><p>“Leave that to me. There are some things that can in fact be accomplished with money alone.”</p><p>“I want to use our real names,” Will admitted. “I want it to be as real as it can be.”</p><p>“Obviously,” Hannibal agreed, licking at Will’s jawline. “I’ll figure something out, Will. Don’t you worry.”</p><p>“Did you still want a recess from carnality, or...?”</p><p>Hannibal laughed again, eyes disbelieving as he regarded Will carefully. “Or would I prefer to make love to my fiancé?”</p><p>“Oh, wow,” Will laughed. “When you put it like that, if you choose your dusty book over me, I’ll be properly insulted.”</p><p>“We can’t have that,” Hannibal chuckled, nosing at Will’s throat and suckling at his collarbone. </p><p>“It would be terribly rude,” Will agreed, ripping Hannibal’s button-down with gleeful abandon before scratching lighting at Hannibal’s chest hair.</p><p>“It might also be considered rude to tear through a man’s wardrobe like a maddened terrier, yet here I am with a dwindling closet.”</p><p>“Is that a joke about how small I am?” Will asked with a laugh as he swung his leg over Hannibal’s thigh, dragging their crotches together wickedly. “That would be terribly rude, Doctor Lecter.”</p><p>Hannibal chuckled as he lifted Will’s body, resting his ass against the edge of the desk and pulling his blue tee shirt off easily. Will eased his hands into the destroyed button-down, sliding the garment off Hannibal’s broad shoulders. “You’re a beautiful creature,” Hannibal said worshipfully while his fingers traced along Will’s abdomen. </p><p>“And I’m your fiancé,” Will reminded with a bright grin.</p><p>Hannibal growled, dragging their hips together tightly as they ground against one another. “Yes, you’re my fiancé.” </p><p>“If the situation were different, my Dad might’ve been proud that I was marrying a doctor.”</p><p>“Different in that I am a man, or different in that I am a serial killer?”</p><p>Will huffed with a laugh as Hannibal’s fingers worked open Will’s fly, Will lifting his ass a bit so his shorts could be slid out from under him. “Probably both.”</p><p>“We should send Freddie Lounds a gift basket after we’re married. I look forward to the idea of signing it off as the murder husbands.”</p><p>Will arched into his Hannibal’s hand as he wrapped his fingers around Will’s cock, thumbing at the head gently. “Actual husbands,” Will chuckled.</p><p>“Doing actual murders. How ludicrous.”</p><p>“Mm,” Will agreed, losing his thoughts for a moment as Hannibal worked him expertly. Will undid Hannibal’s belt, then his fly, pulling his pants down roughly. “I’d like to find someone… worthy of us, Hannibal. I feel ready.”</p><p>“Two proposals in one day,” Hannibal sighed, losing his voice a bit as Will wrapped his fingers around him, his grip firm and exquisite. “What have I done to deserve such bliss?”</p><p>Dropping to his knees in front of Hannibal, Will swiped his tongue gently at the head of his cock, licking the flavor from his lips in a way that showed that he was savoring it. “It’s not just for you,” Will commented. “I want to. It’s more than that… I feel like I need to? Cutting into Bedelia’s leg made me realize I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.” He sunk his mouth over Hannibal’s length, nudging the back of his throat before he pulled away, licking gently at the tip again. </p><p>Hannibal’s eyes were watching him intently, his mouth parted in wonder as he regarded the younger man. “You hadn’t realized that yet?”</p><p>Will pulled away from him, continuing his attentions with his hand instead of his mouth. “Every other time I’ve hurt someone has been in the heat of the moment. I couldn’t be certain the… pleasure I was feeling was because I survived, or in the act itself. There was no danger when I cut into her leg. Only gratification. I was more clearly able to separate the act from survival instinct, I think.”</p><p>“I hadn’t thought of that,” Hannibal said, his voice gruff as Will swiped his tongue at the underside of his cock, sucking the vein underneath. “Will,” he breathed, his fingers tugging gently into the slightly longer curls at his temple. Will’s eyes looked up at him, defined cheekbones dewy with sweat, plush bottom lip wet as he panted through his open mouth. Then there were Hannibal’s eyes, so distracting in their beauty; not brown, not green. Sometimes reddish; the color and clarity reminding Will of a glass of whiskey in the sun.</p><p>“Sometimes,” Will said conversationally as his tongue continued a halting assault on Hannibal’s length so he could speak. “I completely understand your need to devour another person.” He sunk his mouth over Hannibal meaningfully, sucking roughly before pulling away. “The way that you look right now, so fucking<i> gorgeous</i> I can barely look at you. You need to understand that you’re in danger, Hannibal.” He leaned forward and bit Hannibal’s hip for emphasis, suckling harshly with teeth and tongue against the soft flesh, earning himself a shameless moan from the older man.</p><p>“I’m glad to hear it,” Hannibal said with a groan as Will sank back down over his cock with his mouth. “My urge to rip into your addicting throat is sometimes so overwhelming I have to force myself to pull away. My desire to tear into you and protect you always at war with each other. If you’d survive it, I would have split you open and crawled inside you by now.”</p><p>“There is no reason you can’t be inside me now,” Will said meaningfully, his eyes darkened to midnight as he looked up at Hannibal under long, dark, lashes.</p><p>Hannibal hauled him up quickly, turning Will’s body so his back lay flat on the desk. The growl that came from the older man’s throat should have caused alarm, but all Will could manage to feel was raw desire pooled low in his belly. Hannibal took him behind his knees and folded him in half, exposing his entrance embarrassingly. “<i>Reckless</i>, beautiful, man,” Hannibal whispered reverently. </p><p>“Fuck me, please. Don’t prep me first,” Will said carelessly. “I want to feel it for days.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes were absolutely feral as he looked at Will. He reached into the desk and pulled a tube out, coating his cock liberally before lining himself against Will’s extremely tight hole. “This will hurt,” he said, voice struggling for some semblance of control.</p><p>“I hope so,” Will moaned.</p><p>With that, Hannibal pushed in, the breach sudden and alarming, painful and yet not enough at the same time. He sunk in quickly, and gave Will no time to recover before his hips were snapping. He took Will’s legs again and folded him in half, raising his backside a bit so the tight little bundle of nerves inside him was brutalized by the relentless pounding of Hannibal’s cock.</p><p>Will’s cock had softened a bit at the painful intrusion, but quickly regained interest as his prostate was pulverized. “You always demand more from me,” Hannibal panted, his face sweating and flushed with exertion as his hips slammed into Will’s. “Have you no self-preservation, Will?”</p><p>Will could barely form a coherent thought, his body lit up with pain and pleasure equally. He reached between them mindlessly, fisting his cock roughly in time with Hannibal’s relentless pace.<br/>
Hannibal pulled out abruptly, grabbing Will’s body and turning him so his stomach was against the desk, dropping one of Will’s feet to the floor while the other still balanced on the desktop. He pressed back in without warning, resuming the brutal pace of before. </p><p>The self-satisfied growl coming from the older man brought Will back to himself for a moment. The pace was punishing; vicious, in fact. So much so that it took all of Will’s strength to focus and acknowledge that there was something different about Hannibal in that moment.</p><p>Will allowed his empathy to open, and what he felt made the hairs on his neck stand up. Hannibal was here, but not here. Checked out, in fact. Whatever was pounding into him right now was infinitely dangerous. Will could feel the curls of darkness around them, the emotions clear to him. Pleasure. So much pleasure, interwoven with a need to consume. Will liked the idea of testing it.</p><p>Will did his best to bring his torso off the desk, leaning back against Hannibal’s chest, tilting his head in invitation for Hannibal’s mouth. The predatory growl from behind him was a warning, one that Will wasn’t in the mood to heed in any way.</p><p>Hannibal released one of his hands from their bruising grip on Will’s hip to grasp painfully into his hair, tipping Will’s head back more, exposing his throat to his mouth fully, and Will’s fist on his cock stuttered in anticipation.</p><p>Hannibal’s mouth bit down roughly, teeth breaking the skin, as his hips crashed against Will. It was all it took for Will, who came harder than he ever had in his life, come spattering across the desk in thick ropes. Hannibal released his mouth from the wound, licking at the blood that oozed from it, before he buried himself deep and came with a shattered yell.</p><p>Will flopped to the desk gracelessly, panting as though he were dying, while Hannibal regained control of himself behind him.</p><p>“Christ,” Hannibal moaned, his voice breaking. “What have I done? Will? <i>Will</i>, I am sorry.”</p><p>Will sighed against the desk, trying his best to get his sated body to react to the desolation in the older man’s voice. </p><p>Hannibal pulled from his body gently, and Will hissed at the ache he felt when he did. “What have I done,” Hannibal sighed.</p><p>Will turned carefully, grabbing at Hannibal’s wrist as he made to pull away. “Where you going? Come here,” Will pleaded contentedly.</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes were on the wound at the base of his throat, a thick swallow showing so much regret Will couldn’t stand it. “I must get something to clean that, human mouths are teeming with bacteria. I am so sorry, Will.”</p><p>“Do it in a minute, come here please.”</p><p>Hannibal closed his eyes and wiped at his face, taking a bit of Will’s blood from the corner of his mouth as he did. “You’re bleeding,” he said regretfully.</p><p>“I know,” Will said, reaching up to finger at the bite mark softly.</p><p>“No,” Hannibal winced, “here.” Hannibal’s fingers trailed softly at Will’s entrance, causing a flinch of pain in Will at the touch.</p><p>“I’m fine, I’ll be fine.” Will sat up with a groan, leaning purposefully on one cheek instead of both. “Come here.”</p><p>Hannibal stepped towards him, and Will wrapped his arms around the older man’s sweaty torso, resting his face against Hannibal’s heart. “Will,” Hannibal said miserably.</p><p>“That was the best sex of my entire life, hands down, no question. You don’t get to feel bad about it, and you don’t get to retreat from me because of it.”</p><p>“You don’t know,” Hannibal said softly, his voice bleak as he fingers ever so gently trailed the notches of Will’s spine. “You’ve no idea the darkness inside of me. This wasn’t me, Will. This was something else that you clawed to the surface. Don’t do it again, please. If you feel it, and I know you did, don’t antagonize it. I love you so dearly.”</p><p>“I do know that darkness, Hannibal.” Will said, his eyes hardening as he looked up at the older man. “I have the same, or don’t you know that? I wanted this. Or maybe the darkness in me wanted it. I don’t just want the loving part of you while you shove the rest of you so far out of sight that we lose it. If it really hurts you to be this way with me, then we won’t ever do it again. Just know that on rare occasions I think it would be nice to let loose.”</p><p>Hannibal seemed at a loss for words, his fingertips feather-light against Will’s sternum. “The roughness was… extremely satisfying. My discomfort lies here,” he said quietly as his finger touched the edge of the bite mark. “I don’t want to do this again. It’s too dangerous. I was not present when I did this, there was none of the part of me that desires to protect you present. It was instinctual, and my instincts, my beloved, are extremely unpredictable.”</p><p>Will swallowed, eyes glancing away from Hannibal’s own to the base of his throat. “I won’t do it again,” Will promised. “I’ll always keep you grounded enough to prevent something like this from happening. How would I do it, if I feel it in you?”</p><p>“Tell me you love me,” Hannibal pleaded. “Or do something remarkably gentle. Slow me down or force me to face you. I’m honestly unsure, no one has ever seen that side of me and survived it. Please let me take care of you, now. I do not want you to suffer an infection.”</p><p>Will nodded, standing from the desk with a wince that didn’t go unnoticed by Hannibal. “The main bathroom has a tub. Some Epsom salt would aid you in the… swelling.”</p><p>Will agreed, and they made their way to the opulent bathroom in the living area. It was beautiful, and the large, hammered copper, tub that took up the far wall suddenly looked extremely inviting.<br/>
Hannibal filled it with warm water, taking care not to make it too hot. He added Epsom salts and a touch of aloe to the water, before gesturing for Will to step in. Will sunk down into the heat with a flinch, the sharp sting against his entrance throbbing in the water in time with his heart. Hannibal was at the counter, getting supplies for his shoulder, so he thankfully didn’t see Will’s momentary pain.<br/>
</p><p>
“I know you felt it,” Hannibal said quietly, his back still turned. “I could sense a shard of fear that worked it’s way up your spine. It was as though you chummed the water. Why didn’t you pull away? Say something that would remind me of what I was doing?”</p><p>Will huffed, wiping at his jaw softly as he did. “I just… wanted to see what would happen.”</p><p>Hannibal turned to him, only the slightest crinkle of amusement at the corners of his eyes. “We are more alike than I care to admit.”</p><p>He kneeled to the side of the tub, holding a basin of water. He worked quickly and gently, pressing clean gauze soaked in an antiseptic solution into the wound, before exchanging it with another just like it. It stung quite a bit initially, but the burn of it eventually tapered into mild discomfort. “Do you remember your first kill?” Will asked, voice low with interest.</p><p>“Yes,” Hannibal said softly. “Just as I remember all of them.”</p><p>“Tell me about it.”</p><p>Hannibal bit his lip, tilting his head to regard Will for a moment, before his hands continued. “I was in my early twenties, out for dinner in Brussels. There was a man with a child not twenty feet from me. She couldn’t be more than three. No older than Mischa,” he paused, his throat bobbing with a swallow. “She had misbehaved in one way or another, and he was rough with her. I remember her tears, and how she asked him not to hurt her again. She said it in the same tone that Mischa did, the same horrible dread in her voice.  I followed him home, waiting until I was certain he had gone to bed. I still remember my shock at discovering the door unlocked. It was as though he wanted me to stop him.”</p><p>“How did you do it?” Will asked, completely unaware of how much his pupils had dilated during the story. Completely unaware of how Hannibal noticed it.</p><p>“I slit his throat. I didn’t want him making noise that would alert the little girl. Once he was dead, I removed his hands from his body. I can still remember the sounds the bones made, and I distinctly remember how everything seemed to be brighter, more vivid. The colors, the scent.” He swallowed again, his tongue trailing behind the back of his bottom teeth. “I knew I would do it again. It… evolved from there. Initially it had to be people who were abhorrent. Eventually I was satisfied even if they weren’t.”</p><p>Panic made Will tense; his breathing labored with the very thought of himself becoming… similar. “Please. Hannibal. Please, keep me on track. I never want to be that way. I never want to become desensitized to it.”</p><p>“You won’t,” Hannibal soothed, his fingers rubbing the stiffness from Will’s shoulders lovingly. “You aren’t like me, Will. Your empathy will not allow you to become a monster.”</p><p>“I don’t think you’re a monster,” Will said harshly. “I think you started off as a vengeful knight who lost his pledge along the way. I’m here to remind you of it.”</p><p>Hannibal smiled, his eyes downcast as he did. Long, pale lashes splayed on his high cheekbones, and Will was awe struck by the beauty of him. “You are a reminder that I am capable of chivalry, as well as devotion. I love you, Will. I wish there were another word to use, as the phrase has lost meaning. It’s all I have, though.”</p><p>I know what you mean exactly,” Will agreed. </p><p>“Mm,” Hannibal hummed distractedly. “I’ve only ever said it to Mischa, aside from you.”</p><p>Will turned to him, his eyes wide with surprise. “Really.”</p><p>“Yes,” Hannibal chuckled.</p><p>Will sunk lower into the tub, a sigh escaping his lips. “I’ve only ever said it to you and Molly. Maybe my Dad when I was little? I have no memory of saying it to him though.”</p><p>“Did you love Alana?” Hannibal asked, no underlying tone in his voice. Merely curiosity.</p><p>“No,” Will smirked. “Why would you ask me that?”</p><p>Hannibal leaned forward and pressed his lips to Will’s temple, breathing in the scent of him as he did. “I’ve… wondered why you wanted possessive revenge against Bedelia for having me. Yet, Alana had me far more intimately than Bedelia did and you don’t seem phased by it at all.”</p><p>Will laughed, his head lolling back against the back of the tub as he did. “You used her, Hannibal. Because I wanted her. You did what you did to keep her from me. I know that.”</p><p>“Perhaps it started that way, yes.”</p><p>Will sat up abruptly, water sloshing around the tub as he turned to Hannibal with dark eyes. “Did <i>you</i> love Alana?” Will asked harshly.</p><p>“Of course not,” Hannibal chuckled. “I meant, that it started off as a way to keep her from you, yes. Eventually it was just a… substitute for different delicate beauty with dark curly hair and blue eyes.”</p><p>Will’s face was deadly. “Are you shitting me right now? You’re comparing me to <i>Alana</i>.”</p><p>“There was no comparison. Which is why it ended. You’ve always thought so highly of her, and while I do agree that killing her might be too far, she was cruel to me while I was under her care.”<br/>
</p><p>
Will snorted. “Really? Did she not let you sharpen your pencils with a scalpel? The indignity.”</p><p>Hannibal stood from the side of the tub, carrying the bloodied bowl and gauze to the counter. “She brought me photos of your wedding.”</p><p>Will’s mouth hung open, a blush creeping up his cheeks. “She did not.”</p><p>“She did. Just the photographer photos, and only two. One where you and your plain wife were kissing under a ridiculous tree, the sun setting behind the both of you with your arms around her middle. The other was more upsetting to see. You, looking down at the wedding ring on her hand while she smiled at you. Your fingers were gentle, holding her hand. Your smile was the secret one that you share with me, now.”</p><p>His heart was slamming in his chest with the older man’s words. He knew exactly which two photos he was talking about. “I’m so fucking sorry,” Will blurted, his throat constricting tightly.</p><p>“She liked for me to know that I was absent from your life, your thoughts. She knew exactly how I felt for you, and why I surrendered. There were other indignities. A few times she took my toilet from the room so I would feel humiliated. Mostly she used you, though.”</p><p>“I sent those photos to Jack. He couldn’t make it to our wedding, and he asked for some photos. Of course, he would make sure you’d get to see them. Christ, I feel like an asshole right now.”<br/>
</p><p>
“You did not do it,” Hannibal said simply. “I was merely trying to get you to empathize with me about why I wanted to kill her.”</p><p>Will rubbed his face, which was still burning hot with shame. “I kind of want to kill her, right now.”</p><p>“We won’t, though. What you said to me about Bedelia that day very much applies to Alana, though in a different way. While she knew I was enraptured with you, she was very certain you did not feel the same way about me. I delight in knowing that she is out there, terrified, under no illusion that she was wrong.”</p><p>Will smirked, “She will likely be terrified for the rest of her life, wondering if the murder husbands are coming for her.”</p><p>“Yes,” Hannibal said, a mirror of Will’s smirk on his own lips.</p><p>“Good,” Will sighed.</p><p>Hannibal swallowed, his eyes glancing away from Will briefly. “You should stay in for at least another fifteen minutes. When you get out, I will bandage your neck.”</p><p>“You’re not staying with me?” Will asked, his voice needy and small in a way that caused another blush to spread over his face.</p><p>“I find I need a moment. You can find me when you’ve finished.”</p><p>With that, Hannibal left the bathroom, leaving Will with a numb feeling in his gut. He could feel the pain Hannibal was in while he described what Alana had shown him. It wasn’t easy for Hannibal to talk about, that much was perfectly clear. Fifteen minutes be damned.</p><p>Will stood from the tub, toweling himself off quickly before going to their room for a pair of cotton pajama pants. He found Hannibal in the study, dressed in a tee shirt and slacks, his back to Will as he regarded something on his desk, one hand rubbing absently at his jaw.</p><p>Will walked in, and what Hannibal was looking at shoved all the air from his lungs. A sketch Hannibal had clearly drawn, a perfect rendition of the photo of Will looking down at Molly’s wedding ring. Molly’s features were deliberately blurred out, though the shape of her was still unmistakable. Will’s own likeness was drawn in perfect clarity. “When did you do this?” Will asked, tearing the sketchbook from the table and clutching it to himself to prevent Hannibal’s eyes from looking at it anymore.</p><p>Will noticed their wedding rings on the desk, Hannibal not even sparing him a glance. “While you were mending in the cabin. I wanted to remind myself of why I needed to let you go.”</p><p>“Don’t fucking do this,” Will pleaded. “Don’t ruin today with this bullshit, Hannibal.”</p><p>“Ah,” Hannibal said sharply, his eyes finding Will’s own. Will buckled under the coldness he found there. “Our <i>engagement</i>. Tell me, Will. Why did you really propose marriage to me? There is a reason that you aren’t telling me, and I’d like to hear it.”</p><p>Will tore the sketch from the notebook, before shredding the art to pieces. “I told you why, Hannibal. I told you the truth, too.”</p><p>“You told me part of it. I want to know all of it. Do not lie to me, Will.”</p><p>“There isn’t another reason!” Will bellowed.</p><p>“Lies,” Hannibal spat, rounding the desk to loom over Will. “There is something else, do not pretend there isn’t. Need I remind you that I know you far more intimately than you seem to believe?”</p><p>“I wanted…” Will began, his voice losing steam at the admission. “A very small part of me wanted to make sure that if we are ever caught, we would still have legal rights to one another. I never want someone to say that I don’t have the right to know what’s happening with you.”</p><p>“A legal claim to me in the event of an arrest. How <i>passionate</i>.”</p><p>“The passion is in the rest of the reason I want to marry you. I love you. I want you to be mine in every way that you can be,” Will whispered, his eyes turning glassy with the realization that Hannibal was not interested in the rest of it.</p><p>“I find I am no longer attracted to the idea.” Hannibal said, an air of nonchalance in his voice so devastating that Will moaned to hear it.</p><p>“You don’t mean that,” Will pleaded. </p><p>“Worry not, Will.” Hannibal said, breezing past him towards the door. “I will speak to a lawyer and be sure to include you in my living will. Your legalities to me will be known, without the burden of something so permanent. I’m stepping out for the evening. Do not bother waiting up.”</p><p>He left swiftly, leaving Will completely shocked by how quickly tonight turned on its head. Will dropped the notebook and the shredded page, his hands shaking too much to continue holding them. Will walked numbly to the bottle of whiskey, foregoing a glass in lieu of drinking directly from the bottle.</p><p>He made his way outside to the pool, sitting carefully on the chaise lounge and swigging the bottle with purpose. This had been what he expected when he had thought of his life with Hannibal. In the past, whenever he considered something more, he always assumed their lives would be consumed with heated arguments that continued to escalate, never resolving. It hadn’t been that way, until today.<br/>
</p><p>
Will had no idea how to retrieve this situation. Words were not going to do it, he was fairly certain. </p><p>Hours drifted by, Will only standing to relieve himself in the bushes on the side of the house before slumping back into the seat, his intention to get drunk becoming an achievement.</p><p>He had initially only planned to drink until Hannibal returned, but when he ran out of whiskey from the bottle and the sun started to come up, Will realized Hannibal had been gone for a very worrisome amount of time.</p><p>Anxiety began creeping into his alcohol addled mind. What if he didn’t come back? Will stood, the world tipping nauseatingly as he paced the patio. What if he had decided that all the years of Will rejecting him were a sign, somehow?</p><p>As the hours dragged on, Will’s imagination got the better of him. Hannibal, searching for a revenge fuck from someone. Will’s mind supplemented the idea readily as he closed his eyes to visualize it. Would he pick someone that looked like Will? He imagined it, the impression not quite coming together. Not a Will double, then.</p><p>They would look like Molly. </p><p>The breath left him in a woosh as the design came together in his head. Hannibal fucking into a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, someone who smiled at him warmly while her cheeks blushed from the attention of someone so dangerously beautiful. Will could picture Hannibal, his shirt off, pants only removed enough to slide into her. He could imagine just how Hannibal’s hair would fall over his forehead as he pounded into her. The exact pout of his bottom lip as he chased his pleasure in someone else.</p><p>He would likely kill her afterwards. Tear her heart out with his bare hands. Take a life without Will by his side, while his cock was still wet from her cunt. The thought alone made Will dry heave, jealousy swirling just as forcefully as the contents of his stomach.</p><p>Will laughed, a broken, hollow noise in the quiet of the dawn. Of course, Hannibal would leave him now. Now that Will had nothing else, and no one else.</p><p>Will fell onto his knee, promptly vomiting a worrisome amount of whiskey onto the patio. “What a waste,” he slurred, not talking about the whiskey. Finding that his legs weren’t working properly anymore, he folded to the patio, rolling away from the mess he had made as much as he could.</p><p>He must have dozed off, because what felt like only moments later, a rough hand was slapping him awake, the sun blaring down on him relentlessly.</p><p>“Will?” Hannibal called, a note of worry in his voice. “Answer me, Will?”</p><p>Will groaned, rolling to his side to spit up a bit more booze that had apparently refused to be digested. “For God’s sake,” Hannibal said haughtily. “Did you have to binge the entirety of the bottle?”<br/>
</p><p>
Hannibal hauled him up, the abruptness of the movement causing Will to keel forward, his stomach emptying onto the patio in a torrent. Hannibal held him up while Will spat onto the cement, a low moan escaping his throat as more came up. </p><p>“I should at least be thankful you did this outside,” Hannibal remarked dryly, rubbing a gentle circle on the small of Will’s back. “Is there more?” He wondered.</p><p>“Wait,” Will slurred, bracing his palms on his knees as he swayed. Sure enough, there was more.</p><p>When it eventually got to a point where Will was dry-heaving, Hannibal pulled him back up. “I’m going to give you something for the nausea. Dry-heaving this way can cause tearing.”</p><p>The very idea of taking anything by mouth right now made Will swat at Hannibal ineffectually, but he went with Hannibal willingly as he pulled him into the house. He sat Will on the bed, throwing his legs up onto the mattress before leaving the room.</p><p>He came back soon after, Will’s eyes heaving open to look at the older man, relief worming in that Hannibal came back to him. Hannibal sat on the side of the bed, pulling a tourniquet onto Will’s arm before palpating for a vein. Will groaned as the IV slipped in, a saline bag hanging on the headboard behind him.</p><p>Hannibal pulled a needle from his pocket, showing it to Will. “Aprepitant. It is an anti-nausea medication. You should feel much better immediately.”</p><p>He stuck the needle into the port of the IV, compressing the plunger. Will sighed, rolling his head to look at Hannibal. “Kill her,” he slurred.</p><p>“Whom am I killing?” Hannibal asked, his eyes focused on the task of checking Will’s IV.</p><p>“Molly,” he drawled. “Alana. I don’t care, Hannibal. Kill’em all. Kill whoever you want. Marry me after.”</p><p>“I don’t want to kill Molly, Will.”</p><p>“Who’s a liar now, huh?” Will chuckled, licking the taste of vomit from his mouth. </p><p>“I wanted to, but I do not relish the idea of orphaning her son. He’s lost quite enough parental figures in his life.”</p><p>“If I’d have seen a picture of you, with some… woman. Like the one you saw of me…” Will’s speech was slow, but clear. “I’d kill her. I’d have sent a great red dragon to her, too.”</p><p>Hannibal’s hands stilled in their task, his face resigned as he regarded Will. “What I said last night was in anger, and also resentment. Two emotions I am not well known to handle on their own, never mind together. I think, though, that we will save this conversation for when you are more likely to remember it.”</p><p>“Did you fuck somebody else?” Will asked, his mouth parting for a quick inhale of breath while he waited for Hannibal to answer.</p><p>Hannibal’s eyebrow arched, his lips thinned to a line. “Do you really believe I would ever be unfaithful to you? Is that why you sought the bottom of a bottle, Will? Were you imagining that I would do such a thing?”</p><p>“I could imagine you doing it because it would hurt me more than if you just gutted me again. I think you know that and would use it however you could.”</p><p>Hannibal licked his lips, looking away towards the window. “Do you really think so little of me? I would never do that, Will. I’d never fuck someone else nor will I ever put a blade to you again.”<br/>
</p><p>
Will snorted, his face slack with a grin. “You said fuck.”</p><p>Hannibal rolled his eyes. “I think we’ll continue this conversation later,” he said, standing from the bed abruptly.</p><p>“Did you kill somebody?” </p><p>The sudden stillness of Hannibal’s body answered the question, even before he spoke. “I lost myself for a moment. There was a man, he said something… untoward. I broke his neck. I did not display him, nor did I take anything from him. There is nothing about it that will draw attention to us. I promise you.”</p><p>“What’d he say to you?” Will asked, his heart only slightly broken that Hannibal did something so rash without him.</p><p>“I was sitting at the pier when he approached me and told me I had the choice of sucking him off or giving him my wallet. I chose a third option. It took me a while to get back home because I wanted to drive his body further away. I put him in the ocean to wash his filth clean.”</p><p>“I just <i>knew</i> someone was trying to get you to put your mouth on them. I could feel it.”</p><p>Hannibal huffed out a laugh at the door, “I’m fairly certain he only wanted my wallet, Will.”</p><p>“I’m glad you killed him,” Will sighed, tipping his cheek into his pillow.</p><p>Hannibal watched him a moment, his eyes far away. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”</p><p>With the promise, Will drifted off.</p><p>It was just after four in the afternoon when Will woke up. He felt groggy, but surprisingly, not as hungover as he’d imagined he would. Looking up, he noted that at some point Hannibal must have come in and swapped a fresh saline bag. The thoughtfulness of the gesture made Will smile, despite feeling like dogshit.</p><p>He reached for a tissue and pulled the IV from his arm, pressing the puncture wound down to prevent a bruise. While he held pressure, he wandered into the bathroom and turned on the shower, letting it heat up before tossing the tissue into the trash. </p><p>The heat of the shower drew out the rest of the alcohol from his pores, and he stood in the heat of it long after he had finished washing up.</p><p>After brushing his teeth, he popped two motrin and swigged water from the faucet, touching his face briefly with the cold water. He pressed a gauze soaked in iodine to the bite wound on the base of his neck, then covered it using a fresh gauze with some antibiotic ointment. </p><p>He pulled on a pair of boxers and a tee shirt before going to find Hannibal.</p><p>He was in the kitchen, plating a few pieces of chicken with white rice, turning to look Will over as he set it at the kitchen island. “This is rather bland, but I think your stomach will be grateful for it.”</p><p>Will groaned at the smell of it, but obediently began eating taking small, cautious bites. “Are you still angry with me?”</p><p>The dishcloth that Hannibal was using to clean the counters stilled under his hand. “What reason would I have to be angry?” His tone was light, but the furious way he continued to scrub at the pristine counters suggested a different story.</p><p>“That you think I only want to marry you for ownership rights if we get arrested. For asking you if you were out fucking someone else. For accusing you of doing something like that because you can be manipulative. For Alana showing you photos of one of the most nerve-wracking days of my life. Pick one.”</p><p>Hannibal sighed, gently folding the dish towel, and leaning against the counter. “I’d like to pick the last comment you made, for the moment. Nerve-wracking?”</p><p>Will finished chewing, a grimace on his face as his stomach turned a bit. “I sent Jack two photos because they were the only two that didn’t capture me looking like I was shitting myself. It was a mistake to marry her. I knew it as I was doing it. Even our engagement happened because she kept saying that Wally adored me, he needed a father figure, it was the next logical step, whatever. You want to know how I proposed to her? She was going on about how we’d be good together, again, and that her son loved me, and that we should get married soon. My response? ‘Okay.’ I fucking said ‘okay’, Hannibal. There wasn’t even a ring.”</p><p>Hannibal swallowed, the noise loud in the kitchen. “This… didn’t bother her?”</p><p>The laugh from Will was not an amused one. “No. In fact, she was so excited that I conceded that she immediately called her mom. I stood in the kitchen, completely numb and freaking the fuck out, and she looked so damn happy that I couldn’t take it back. We went shopping for a ring that she picked out. Then the wedding was planned. Next thing I knew, I was standing at the altar sweating bullets. All I could imagine was that this was as adventurous as my life was going to get, now. The photographer snapped pictures, telling us how to stand and where to put our hands. Out of hundreds, those two are the only ones that don’t show how I was actually feeling. I remember Molly looking through them with me after they came back. Her <i>face</i>, Hannibal. She must have known, then. Instead, she made a joke about how I’m not very photogenic.”</p><p>“I didn’t know any of this,” Hannibal said, clearing his throat.</p><p>“No,” Will sighed, dropping his fork in his unfinished plate. “I didn’t want you to. How fucking<i> pathetic</i> would you have thought I was, agreeing to marry someone like that? You love the fire in me, right? My passion is what drew you to me in the first place. Where was it? Buried deep and flickering out. You would have been ashamed. I could imagine the exact look you would have given me. Then, when I realized the idea of me being happy hurt you, I let you keep thinking it. I wish I would have told you sooner than this, but at least I’m telling you now.”</p><p>“You proposed to me,” Hannibal said slowly. “You weren’t conceding again, were you?”</p><p>“I am going to fucking pretend you didn’t just ask me that.”</p><p>“Humor me, please.”</p><p>Will sighed, tugging his fingers into his hair as he did. “No I wasn’t conceding to you. I want this. I want you. More than I’ve ever wanted anything. I wanted it then, too. I was too much of a chicken shit to admit it to you. You have no idea how much I regret that. When I sat down next to you in Italy, and you said the most romantic thing that anyone has ever said to me in my life, I should have told you that I had been aching for you. I should have tossed the knife on the floor and pinned you to that bench with my body. I should have begged you to have me. I didn’t though. Mostly because I was still angry over Abigail, but also because I was terrified.”</p><p>Hannibal’s eyes were shining like glass. The look on his face was simply devastated. “And here I was, thinking we had said all we needed to about our past.”</p><p>Will bit his lip, shaking his head softly. “We might have escaped the tide but there’s always a rip current with us, isn’t there?”</p><p>“Two steps forward, one step back, as the saying goes.”</p><p>“Mm,” Will agreed. “So, what else?”</p><p>“The idea that you were sitting here, destroying your body with a poisonous amount of alcohol, imagining that I would bed someone else to spite you.”</p><p>“Oh,” Will remembered, his cheeks heating a bit. “Uh, well, I had a lot to drink.”</p><p>“You don’t say,” Hannibal remarked wryly.</p><p>Will’s eyes glared at Hannibal, but his mouth was twisted up in a smirk. “It’s just where my mind wandered. I slipped into self-destruct mode and imagined the worst possible scenario. My trust in you is better than it has ever been, but with alcohol, it lapses.”</p><p>“Clearly,” Hannibal said, sucking his teeth. “Although I have been known to be… manipulative with you in the past.”</p><p>“No kidding,” Will said archly, eyebrows raising in mock-surprise. </p><p>This time Hannibal glared at Will, though his mouth was quirked up at the corners. “As I said, in the past. I need you to appreciate that I would never do that to you, now. Never, Will.”</p><p>“Understood,” Will whispered, his eyes holding Hannibal’s own. “Now for the other thing.”</p><p>“I was… angry, Will. I understand why the prospect of having a legal claim to me is necessary.”</p><p>“Okay,” Will said slowly. “Do you also understand that despite the benefits of marriage legally, I also just want to be your husband? That I want to wear a ring that matches yours and flaunt you out in public?” Will blushed, “Not any time soon, obviously, as we are both on the FBI’s most wanted, but eventually. I want to own you in every sense of the word. I imagine us out, dressed in the finest suits, maybe at the opera? Unclear where we are or why we are dressed that way, but that’s how I picture it. I imagine all these eyes on you, because they always are, and I’ll get to put my left hand on you, showing off who you are to me, and their eyes will have to turn away or I will take them from them.”</p><p>“All these eyes on me?” Hannibal laughed, his long, slender, fingers touching his chest briefly. “You’re quite love-sick, I think.”</p><p>Will hummed. “And horribly possessive.”</p><p>“How could I forget that,” Hannibal teased. “The way your mind works… I still cannot predict it.”</p><p>“Here you are, dancing around it again. Are you going to marry me, or not?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Hannibal said slowly, walking around the island towards Will.</p><p>“You don’t know? Are you serious?” Will asked harshly, his mouth pursing with annoyance.</p><p>“Ask me nicely and I’ll consider it.”</p><p>Will sighed, his eyes murderous as he regarded Hannibal. “I love you, you stubborn ass. Marry me or I’ll kill you.”</p><p>“Will,” Hannibal warned, tipping Will’s face up with his fingertips.</p><p>Time to take out the big guns. Will widened his eyes, slackening his features tenderly. “Please, Hannibal?” He asked softly, coyly, his voice silken with want. “I need you to say you’ll marry me. Please?”</p><p>Hannibal pressed his mouth to Will’s, tipping his head gently to lick into his mouth before pulling away. “Spoiled thing,” Hannibal mumbled against his mouth. “<i>Okay</i>.”</p><p>Will tore away from him, eyes turning to slits. “Okay? O-fucking-kay?”</p><p>Hannibal laughed, leaning forward to press his lips to Will’s again. “Yes, Will. Let’s get married.”</p><p>Will growled while his hands grabbed at the collar of Hannibal’s shirt, dragging him back down to his mouth to nip roughly at his bottom lip. “You’re a jerk.”</p><p>“And I love you.” Hannibal said softly, tongue poking out to assess the bite Will had given him that didn’t break the skin.</p><p>Without thought, Will reached up and touched the abused skin of his lip gently, tracing the dampness from Hannibal’s tongue with the pad of his finger. “I love you. Are we all right, now?”</p><p>“Very much so, I think.”</p><p>“How soon can we get married?”</p><p>Hannibal chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Epilogue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>Three years later</i>
  </p>
</div>The music in the bar was loud. So loud, in fact, Will had to physically fight the desire to wince. Wincing would ruin his design.<p>He made his way over to the bar, whiskey in his hand. He had shaven clean for this and slicked his hair back. The white vee neck tee shirt he wore was tight, accentuating his lithe frame, showing off the defined muscle of his chest and arms. His black slacks were also tight, fabric wrapped around him enticingly. He was using his appearance, and bending the world to his will.</p><p>He rested his elbow at the bar, right hand coming to touch his left ring finger where his wedding band should be.</p><p>He sighed, hating the feel of being without it. </p><p>This was the first day in just about three years that he’d intentionally gone without it, and he hated every moment of it.</p><p>The guy next to him at the bar appraised him openly. Will could feel the slick, greasy, roam of his eyes over his body. Will looked at him pointedly, twisting his mouth with distaste, before intentionally disregarding him. The disregarding part was important, as it was what triggered the man to do what he does.</p><p>Will knows it.</p><p>His empathy open, he could feel the initially heavy attraction wafting off him, followed by indignation over being disregarded, then the distinct feeling of anger. The man believed he would teach Will a lesson. He would show him that no one disregarded him. That was his design.</p><p>Will turned from his drink deliberately, pretending to search the dancefloor for someone else. Someone better than the guy standing next to him. He knew the moment the guy put something in his drink from the wave of delight that rolled off of him.</p><p>Will turned back and picked up his drink, turning his back to the man. Hannibal made his way over to the bar, holding a drink of his own and leaning into Will softly. Drinks exchanged hands quickly and without any verbal or physical cues that they even knew each other. </p><p>Will pretended to be disgruntled by Hannibal coming so close to order another drink. He stepped backwards and turned away, facing out from the bar as he tipped the drink Hannibal had given him down his throat. </p><p>The man’s eyes watched him eagerly, waiting for the drug he thought Will had consumed to begin working.</p><p>Hannibal walked away, a fresh whiskey and a tainted one, tipping them both to the floor as he walked into the crowd and out the door.</p><p>Will leaned more heavily on the bar, allowing his shoulders to slump over time. Eventually, he leaned his total weight against it, stumbling back helplessly, letting his head roll back as though he couldn’t help it.</p><p>“Hey,” a voice called to his side. “Hey. You’re a mess. You need a ride?”</p><p>Will tipped his face towards the man, eyes blinking heavily. “Ngh,” he sighed.</p><p>“No problem, mate. I got you.”</p><p>The guy wrapped Will’s arm over his shoulder, his fingers digging into his ribs as he hauled him out of the club. “Is your friend okay?” A bouncer asked.</p><p>“My mate can’t handle his whiskey,” the man laughed, fingers digging tighter into Will’s side.</p><p>“You okay to drive?” The bouncer asked.</p><p>“Yeah, man. Can’t ever drink when I go out with this guy.”</p><p>He pulled Will around the corner towards his car, leaning over to suck a disgusting kiss against the side of Will’s face. “Bloody gorgeous thing. Lucky you, coming to the bar while I was there. I got just the thing you need, beautiful.”</p><p>The guy unlocked his car, dropping Will into the passenger seat before running around to the driver’s side and hopping in. “I think I have just the thing you need,” Will said, surprise registering on the man’s face as Will stuck him in the throat with a needle. Hannibal emerged from the side of the building as the guy slumped into the seat, Hannibal removing him quickly before shoving him into the back. He climbed into the front seat, jiggling the man’s car keys before starting the engine.</p><p>“He put his mouth on you,” Hannibal said lowly.</p><p>“It’ll be the last place he puts it,” Will offered.</p><p>“Small consolation,” Hannibal gritted out as he sped away from the curb.</p><p>They drove to the abandoned mill, desolate at this time of night. They changed into their ridiculous, but effective, plastic suits. Hannibal taking a moment to put Will’s ring back on his finger and kissing his hand as he did. They both put on rubber gloves, before they hauled the man into the empty building.</p><p>They dropped the man to the metal table, tying his ankles and wrists to the legs. “He’s awake,” Hannibal whispered, leaning forward to snatch a kiss from Will.</p><p>Will grinned, hovering over the man’s face as he slowly blinked awake. “The fuck,” he slurred.</p><p>“Hello,” Will said politely. “Remember me?”</p><p>“What the fuck, mate?” The guy said, panic in his voice as he tugged groggily on his restraints. He wasn’t going anywhere. </p><p>“What the fuck is right,” Will said menacingly, darting a hand out to snatch at the guy’s throat and turn his head so he had to look at Will. “How many have there been? More than ten?”</p><p>“More than ten what? The fuck?”</p><p>Will tisked. “What would you have done with me, Eric?”</p><p>“I was driving you home, you stupid, bloody, poof.”</p><p>“Wrong answer,” Will warned. He reached forward and nicked a gash into the man’s face, deep enough that the fatty viscera of his cheek flayed open. Eric screamed, thrashing wildly on the table. “Alright! Alright, fuck, please!”</p><p>“What would you have done with me?”</p><p>“I would have showed you a good time, you know?”</p><p>“A good time,” Will repeated. His eyes were flat and dangerous as he leaned over the man’s face. “Like you showed all the others a good time?”</p><p>“Oh, piss off,” the guy sobbed.</p><p>“Hannibal?” Will called without breaking eye contact.</p><p>Hannibal emerged and Eric didn’t know where to look. “C’mon, man. You know how it is, don’t you? He was flirting with me. He wanted it.”</p><p>Hannibal reached forward and jammed a needle into the guys throat, a squawk of surprise bellowing out before deafening quiet. Eric’s eyes were wide, his mouth hung open against his bodies wishes. “A paralytic,” Hannibal offered. “Your body is unable to move, but you will feel everything. Quite similarly to what you do to your victims, is it not?”</p><p>“Beautiful,” Will praised, his voice soft with wonder.</p><p>Hannibal reached forward, pulling the man’s lips with his fingers and cutting them from his face with a scalpel. “For kissing my husband. No one is allowed to do that but me, I’m afraid.”</p><p>Will grinned at him over the table, his pulse calm and steady despite the horror he was about to inflict. “That was likely the most painless thing we will be taking from you tonight,” Will said, a mock-pout in his voice as he loomed over Eric’s tear-streaked face.</p><p>“Would you like to do the honors?” Hannibal offered, passing the scalpel to Will. </p><p>“Yes,” he agreed, tipping his head in consideration. “I think you should take out the organs. I’m so sloppy about it.”</p><p>“Nonsense,” Hannibal soothed. “You will get better with practice.”</p><p>“Your biggest flaw is that you see no flaws in me,” Will teased, pressing the scalpel to Eric’s chest and making a cut from sternum to navel.</p><p>“I want the kidneys,” Hannibal said. “It’s been so long since I’ve made a good pie.”</p><p>Will laughed, opening the chest cavity up. “So long as you make mashed potatoes.”</p><p>“They have the consistency of wallpaper paste,” Hannibal admonished. “I’ll make them for you.”</p><p>Hannibal held up the cooler with ice as Will dropped a kidney into it. Will slid up the man’s body, looking at the fear and pain in his eyes. “Do you think this is how all your victims felt? Helpless, waiting for the pain to be over? I am taking your life. You will die at my hand. That is <i>my</i> design.” Will said lowly.</p><p>They finished, packing away the organs carefully before wrapping the body in a plastic sheet. Will’s body felt like electricity after, the way it always did.</p><p>“Your scent right now, my love.” Hannibal whispered, his voice thick with emotion.</p><p>“I can not wait to get out of this space suit and fuck you stupid when we get home,” Will chuckled.</p><p>They hauled the dead body out to the woods behind the abandoned mill, dropping it unceremoniously into the grave they had dug the night before. “I look forward to displays,” Hannibal sighed. “There’s no art in this.”</p><p>They took turns shoveling dirt, Will pausing to take a breath. “There’s no art, but there is a satisfaction in getting away with it, isn’t there? Anonymity.”</p><p>“I understand that we need to be careful, Will.”</p><p>They made their way back to the car, shucking their plastic suits and putting them in trash bags. Hannibal got in the driver’s seat, taking the car back to the club, but parking a few blocks away. They climbed out, and Will took a moment to Lysol wipe the steering wheel, doors, trunk, and drive-shift before they clicked the lock button and walked towards their car. Will held a small cooler while Hannibal held a small trash bag, each gravitating towards one another to weave their fingers together. </p><p>“You were magnificent tonight,” Hannibal praised as they climbed into their car.</p><p>Will smirked, turning his body towards Hannibal’s as he drove away from the curb. “I felt like I was made of lightning, like crackling with it. You took his lips and I thought I was going to burst into flames.”<br/>
</p><p>
“A phoenix rising,” Hannibal lamented. “Very fitting.”</p><p>Will leaned over the center console, sucking a bruise to Hannibal’s throat. Hannibal groaned at the contact, tipping his head to allow Will more room. “Don’t crash,” Will offered as his fingers slid down Hannibal’s torso to dip into the lines of muscle under his shirt. </p><p>“I’ve no intention of it,” Hannibal promised. “Can’t you wait till we are home?”</p><p>“No,” Will rasped, his fingers working the button of Hannibal’s pants open before dragging the zipper down. Will dragged his knuckles over the firmness of his cock before reaching in and pulling him out.</p><p>“Will,” Hannibal warned, his eyes flicking from the road to Will’s hand briefly.</p><p>“Ah ah,” Will scolded. “Eyes on the road, Doctor Lecter.”</p><p>Will leaned his body over the console, sucking Hannibal into his mouth without pause. Working around the console was awkward, but the feel of Hannibal nudging the back of his throat was too good to stop.</p><p>Hannibal panted, adjusting himself in the seat a bit and tugging his fingers through Will’s curls. Will hummed, pulling back to flick his tongue at the slit and swirl it around the head before sinking back down.</p><p>“People can see in the car,” Hannibal said, his voice tight and guttural in a way that made Will hollow out his cheeks and suck roughly before pulling away. </p><p>His hand resumed the attention as he chuckled, “So? Let people know that you have a husband who just loves the feel of your cock down his throat. Let them be jealous,” he offered as he sunk back down, a low growl escaping Hannibal’s mouth.</p><p>Hannibal pressed down on Will’s head gently, thrusting his hips up into the heat of Will’s mouth. Will loosened his jaw, making room for his helpless thrusting a bit, rolling his testicles in his hand.<br/>
</p><p>
Will knew he was close by the frantic, deep press of him. He pressed his tongue to the underside of his cock, creating a mild suction and humming low in the back of his throat where Hannibal was nudging.</p><p>Hannibal groaned as he came; a desperate, low, gravelly sound, and Will relished it almost as much as the flavor of him. He took a moment to lick him clean, Hannibal twitching with each lap of his tongue, before he tucked him back into his pants and pulled away. “We need to be home, like now.”</p><p>Hannibal panted for a moment, eyes flicking towards Will with a quirk of his eyebrow. “We’d still have to unpack and wrap the meat.”</p><p>The groan that escaped Will was a martyred one as he palmed himself through his slacks. “I fucking hate standing around in the kitchen with a hard on while you take your time.”</p><p>“Maybe if you weren’t so eager to tend to me beforehand, I would have a greater sense of urgency to finish quickly.”</p><p>Will laughed incredulously, “Are you <i>criticizing</i> that I blow you too much?”</p><p>“Hardly. If anything, it’s a good thing. Otherwise we would have endless coolers full of sour meat. What a travesty that would be.” Hannibal swung the car into the long driveway of the home the were renting just outside of London. It was absolutely gorgeous, and right by a stream where Will liked to go fishing sometimes.</p><p>They made their way inside, their two dogs jumping around their legs eagerly at their return. Will smiled as he greeted them briefly, tugging their ears affectionately as they walked to the kitchen.</p><p>Hannibal took a moment to wrap the garbage bag into another one, before squashing it into their trash bin. Will took out the paper meat wraps from the drawer, laying them out and getting the twine ready.</p><p>They worked quickly together; each having settled into the routine of it by now.</p><p>“What should I leave in the fridge?” Will asked.</p><p>“Just the kidneys, please. I’ll have to stop tomorrow to get lard for the crust.”</p><p>“Mashed potatoes,” Will reminded.</p><p>“I haven’t forgotten. I’ll get some Yukon gold potatoes while I’m out.”</p><p>Will came up from behind Hannibal as they finished, deliberately pressing himself to Hannibal’s backside. “Have you… forgotten anything important?”</p><p>“Have you been hard this entire time?” Hannibal asked with a chuckle.</p><p>“Throbbing, actually. Would you like to stand around discussing it or do something about it?”</p><p>Hannibal turned and lifted Will from the floor easily, a tiny squeak of surprise escaping Will’s throat as he carried him down the hall to their bedroom. Will laughed as he was tossed onto the bed, each shedding clothes as quickly as they could manage to before Hannibal crawled over his naked body.</p><p>Their mouths met as Hannibal dropped his weight onto Will, pressing their bodies together sinfully. “Fuck, you feel good,” Will moaned, grasping Hannibal’s ass to drag him against his cock more roughly.<br/>
</p><p>
“I’d like to watch you get yourself ready for me,” Hannibal said breathlessly into the cavern of Will’s open mouth.</p><p>“Do you like that?” Will asked, feigning ignorance. “Watching me fuck myself with my own hand?”</p><p>“Will,” Hannibal sighed, rolling off of him to allow him room. Will reached for the lube on the end table, unscrewing the cap and pulling a blob out with his fingertips. He faced away from Hannibal on the bed, kneeling forward a bit as he reached behind himself. Will’s head fell forward as he breached himself with two fingers, plunging them gently and stretching them purposefully.</p><p>“What are you imagining, Will?” Hannibal asked, his voice dark and silky. Will could imagine the way his pupils were blown out as he watched his fingers disappear inside his body. </p><p>“Thinking about…” Will moaned as he rocked his hips, mouth parted. “Thinking about sitting on you and riding you until I come all over your chest. What I’m always thinking about.”</p><p>“Enticing creature,” Hannibal sighed, reaching out to brush Will’s fingertips as he sunk into himself. Hannibal pressed his index finger in, besides the two of Will’s own.</p><p>“Christ,” Will groaned, his hips snapping uselessly with the intrusion.</p><p>Will pulled away abruptly as he reached forward to scoop another blob of lube from the jar, turning to Hannibal to press him flat to the bed with the other. He slicked Hannibal’s cock briefly as he straddled the older man’s waist, lining them up before sinking himself down in one fluid motion.</p><p>He didn’t pause to adjust, instead, he immediately began rolling his hips as he sunk his fingernails into Hannibal’s chest, matting the hair there with the bit of lube still on his fingers.</p><p>On every down thrust, he brushed his prostate with the head of Hannibal’s length, the feeling exquisite as Will arched his spine. Hannibal sat up, wrapping his arms around Will’s waist, suckling a bruise against the base of his throat.</p><p>Will’s own cock was trapped between their bodies, weeping against their stomachs, and Hannibal took one hand and wrapped it around the heat of it, pumping lazily as Will sought his pleasure.<br/>
</p><p>
Using a forceful hand, Will pressed him down against the mattress so he could pick up his pace, using his thighs to lift himself and drop back down roughly. “Come with me,” Will begged, his mouth parted and his face flushed with exertion.</p><p>Hannibal lifted his own hips from the bed in time with Will’s down thrusts, going deeper. “Anything, Will,” he promised as they both finished, their hips stuttering with the aftershocks of their orgasms.</p><p>Will leaned forward, gasping for breath as he trailed his fingers in his own spend against Hannibal’s stomach, bringing the covered digits to Hannibal’s mouth, who swallowed them greedily, sucking them clean. Will groaned at the feel of Hannibal’s tongue lapping against his fingers, a small chuckle escaping his throat. “We should do this more often,” he laughed.</p><p>Hannibal sighed, dragging his fingers up Will’s torso and wrapping them around the base of his neck, tugging him down for a lingering kiss. “More often? Where will we find time to accomplish anything else?”</p><p>Will grinned as he lifted himself from Hannibal’s lap, dropping gracelessly against his side. “You didn’t… uh, participate much, tonight.”</p><p>Hannibal’s mouth fell open as he turned his head to look at Will. “Are you being serious? What more could I have done with you pursuing your pleasure so enthusiastically?”</p><p>“No,” Will laughed, a blush rising against his cheeks. “I meant tonight at the mill.”</p><p>“Oh,” Hannibal said, his eyes darting away briefly before he turned on his side to look at Will better. “I was very much so relishing watching you. When I told you that you were magnificent, it wasn’t a jest. I enjoyed seeing you in your element. My beautiful, severe, avenging angel. Your brand of righteousness is simply breathtaking to watch.”</p><p>“I could feel your eyes on me,” Will admitted softly, his fingers trailing along the sharp edge of a cheekbone. “The thing is, I like watching you, too.”</p><p>"You may watch me with the next one,” Hannibal promised as he brought Will’s fingertips back to his mouth, planting sweet, open-mouthed kisses against the pads of each finger.</p><p>“I’ve got to let the dogs outside,” Will sighed as he listened to them whine outside the bedroom door. “Maybe take them for a little walk, too.”</p><p>“I’ll join you,” Hannibal offered.</p><p>“Melville will like that,” Will grinned. “He just loves you.”</p><p>“I’m rather fond of him as well,” Hannibal agreed, a small smile gracing his mouth as he thought of the golden retriever.</p><p>Will touched the ring on Hannibal’s finger briefly, thinking about their very small, very quick wedding that involved only one justice of the peace present. He glanced up at the photo on the nightstand. It was the only photo that they had because the person marrying them had taken it. Will and Hannibal looking at one another as though nothing else existed. Perhaps because nothing else did.</p><p>“Do you wish we could have had something more?” Hannibal wondered.</p><p>Will turned his eyes back to Hannibal, his gaze adoring as he appraised the older man under him. “We do have something more. It’s more than I ever imagined having. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”<br/>
</p><p>
“I’m inclined to agree with your sentiment,” Hannibal teased. “I’m so grateful, Will. You can’t imagine how grateful I am.”</p><p>“My love for you is devastating, Hannibal.”</p><p>“As is mine for you,” Hannibal smiled. “Let’s go see to the beasts. I do not relish the idea of them relieving themselves on the flooring.”</p><p>Will laughed as they stood from the bed, each dressing comfortably in sweats and tee shirts as they left the room. </p><p>Their lives weren’t easy. Each decision they made together forced them to live their lives on the run. They had each other, though. </p><p>Will looked to Hannibal as the older man grinned down at their eager dogs, laughing at their enthusiasm as he jingled their leashes. </p><p> The smile on Will’s face was their secret one. The one reserved for Hannibal alone.</p><p>They had each other, and it was all they wanted.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for taking this ride with me, guys. I've got a couple of one-shots in this universe that didn't quite fit into the story. I may be posting them in a few days.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Through the Looking Glass, Darkly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello everyone. I know I promised some one-shots that didn't quite fit in this story, but this thing was taking over my life.</p><p>It's Hannibal/Will centric, but from poor Molly's perspective. Let's go for a ride and feel sorry for Molly. Or not? Meh. Up to you.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Molly was just coming home from work after picking up Walter from school, when she realized there was a black SUV in the driveway. Her stomach dropped at the sight of it, knowing instantly that no good news was coming from a visit like this.</p><p>“Who’s that?” Walter asked from the backseat. “Is Dad back?”</p><p>Molly licked her lips as she pulled the car up to the side of the FBI vehicle, noting that Jack sat in the driver’s seat, resignation on his face.</p><p>“Maybe,” she said, although she didn’t believe it for a minute. “Why don’t you head inside and get started on your homework? I’ll be right behind you, honey.”</p><p>Walter looked torn, but he nodded. “Okay.”</p><p>She took the keys from the ignition and handed them into the backseat, watching as their son walked up the driveway to the house, hoisting his backpack as he went. She left the car, walking numbly to the passenger side of Jack’s, before opening the door and climbing in.</p><p>“Is he alive?” She asked, her voice breaking as she slid her eyes from the dashboard towards the man in the driver’s seat.</p><p>Jack’s fingertips gripped the steering wheel, the squeak of his leather gloves over-loud in the space of the car. “We… aren’t sure. Molly, I… I’m sorry.”</p><p>The deep tremor that coursed through her body made her feel sick. “What happened? Tell me.”</p><p>“There was a plan to get Dolarhyde to come to us. Will’s idea, actually. We used… bait that we assumed he would want more than anything else. It seemed Will was right.”</p><p>“Did you use Will?” She asked, her tone dropping in anger.</p><p>“No,” Jack sighed. “Will suggested we use Hannibal Lecter. We… had a plan to bring him to a monitored location where the goal was to provoke Dolarhyde into pursuing. We didn’t anticipate him ambushing the envoy on their way to said location. Dolaryhyde killed eight officers, Will and Hannibal went missing along with one of the police cruisers.”</p><p>“The car must have lo-jack? I mean come on,” she pleaded. Panic was mounting in her at the prospect of her sweet, loving, husband being surrounded by two very dangerous men. </p><p>“We found the car,” Jack assured her. “It seems Hannibal owned a house on the bluffs, under an alias, of course. It was there that we found Dolaryhyde’s body. Molly, I… there is a video.”</p><p>Tears were coursing down her face, she tucked her bottom lip between her teeth to keep the sob at bay. “J-Just tell me.”</p><p>“Dolarhyde shot Hannibal, and wanted to film his death, we suppose. He stabbed Will, and the… camera was knocked over. The video is dark, as the rest of it happens outside, but it appears Will and Hannibal killed him. Brutally. Their wounds were severe, we found their blood leading out, over the cliffs. It was at least a twenty-meter drop to the ocean below. We have teams looking for bodies, but I don’t think we will find them. Not dead, anyway.”</p><p>“Will would have been defending himself,” she found herself saying. “He’s… he’s not violent, Jack.”</p><p>The look that Jack gave her was measured. “I think they survived the fall, Molly.”</p><p>“Then that… that monster has him,” she sobbed, allowing the hopelessness to break free. “Oh, my God, Jack you have to find him. Hannibal will fucking eat him, he’s a… he’s…”</p><p>Jack gripped the steering wheel tighter, his face pinching with regret for what he was about to say. “I think that wherever Will is, he is there voluntarily. Their relationship… Molly, how much has he told you about Doctor Lecter?”</p><p>Anger stopped her tears for a few minutes as she allowed what was being said to her to sink in. “You think my husband went with a fucking cannibalistic serial killer willingly? After Hannibal hurt him and tried to kill him? How fucking dare you,” she spat.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I just need to ask you a few questions, and then I’ll give you space.”</p><p>“You’re… interrogating me about Will?” She asked disbelievingly.</p><p>“Has he ever given you reason to… question his motives? Is he distant? Does he ever talk about Lecter with you?”</p><p>She swiped the tears from her cheeks angrily, her eyes settling out over the snow-covered yard. “He’s a quiet man,” she admitted. “He can be… introverted. That’s just his way. He’s never spoken to me about that fucking monster, aside from telling me about what he’d done to Will.”</p><p>“They were friends, at one point.” Jack said, clearing his throat. “They were… closer than that. Like mirror images of one another.”</p><p>“It’s time for you to go,” she said abruptly. “How dare you say that to me, when Will didn’t even want to go with you in the first place.”</p><p>“He didn’t,” Jack agreed. “I think because the pull Doctor Lecter has over him was too tempting to test out.”</p><p>She clambered from the front seat, slamming the door to the SUV as Jack got out and followed her up the driveway. She turned on him, face flushed with anger as her body convulsed with nerves. “Tell me you’ll look for him,” she pleaded. “Tell me you aren’t going to abandon him while that man is very likely fucking eating my husband right now.”</p><p>“I promise you, Molly.”</p><p>She nodded, swiping at more tears that had fallen on her face at some point. “Don’t come back here unless you can tell me where he is. And when you find him being held against his choice, you will owe me the biggest apology of your life.”</p><p>“I hope so,” Jack sighed.</p><p>He left and she watched him pull out from the driveway, straightening herself out before going inside to their son.</p><p> </p><p>Weeks passed, and she called the FBI sometimes three times a day to find out what they were doing to find her husband. They were at a dead end, it seemed. No bodies, no leads, no sightings; nothing. Her frustration grew, and she found herself calling Will’s cellphone, which went straight to voicemail every time, as it was likely at the bottom of the ocean. “You’ve reached Will Graham, leave me a message and maybe I’ll get back to you.”</p><p>His voice held the note of a smile in it, and she found herself calling his cell just to hear it.</p><p>Walter was devastated, just as much as she was. He cried at night, and absently touched Will’s fishing gear as though maybe Will would walk in at any moment, asking if he wanted to go down the lake. He could let it out, all his bottled emotions. </p><p>The difference was that she had to hold herself together for him, and the exhaustion she felt from keeping herself composed would just about bring her to her knees once Wally had gone to bed. On top of everything else, she had the dogs to take care of, which only put her in a worse mood, as most of them had been Will’s dogs before they met.</p><p>Without thought, about a month after Will had disappeared, she found herself rummaging through his things.</p><p>He didn’t own much, aside from clothes and his fishing gear. He had his shed out back that only had motors and motor parts. </p><p>Still, she rummaged.</p><p>His closet smelled like him, and she brought her nose to the fabric of his flannel button-downs, inhaling the fading scent of him greedily. She fingered through the rough shirts, gliding back through the closet before her fingers reached a few shirts that were decidedly more expensive than the rest of them. She halted on them, sliding a crisp white button down out of the closet so she could see it better.<br/>
She had never seen him wear it. It was more fitted than anything else he owned. Her eyes slid over the expensive looking garment, clearly a tailored piece, her eyebrows knitting at the custom monogram on the shirt tag. “WG.”</p><p>There were a few other pieces in the closet that were similar, none of them provoking a memory of him wearing them in front of her. She touched the monogram with shaking fingers, wondering for the first time just how much her husband had not told her.</p><p>Fueled by rage, she tore through his closet, coming across an envelope. Nondescript, but with an opened evidence seal.</p><p>She removed it carefully, sliding the dusty envelope open and pulling a sketch out.</p><p>She wasn’t sure why he would hide something like this, as it was gorgeous. The sketch was of Will standing in front of a large window, looking out. There were striped curtains to his sides, an opulence to his environment that seemed foreign for Will to look so… at peace to be at home in. His face was tipped up, eyes contemplative, one hand touching the base of his throat. The sketch was done affectionately, recreating every aspect of her husband that she loved so dearly. His eyelashes, his unruly hair, his long throat, and the gorgeous hands that had brought her so much pleasure.<br/>
She had been so distracted by the beautiful serenity in the sketch of her husband’s image, that she almost neglected to notice the initials of the person who had drawn it.</p><p>The small, HL in the lower right corner made her buckle to the floor. Will had… taken this from evidence. Why? Her hands shook as she held the yellowed paper, her eyes dissecting such an intimate drawing. </p><p>Why would a murdering cannibal take the time to draw Will this way? So reverently. So much… attention to detail. She knew this wasn’t the only sketch he had drawn of Will, not with how beautifully he had recreated Will’s likeness. </p><p>She stuffed it back into the envelope, shuddering as she smashed it back into the closet, as though Hannibal himself could crawl out and kill her if she held it a second more.</p><p>She thought briefly about the implications of Will keeping something like that but disregarded them immediately. He very likely kept it because it was, despite its origins, a beautiful drawing. Jack had planted a seed of uncertainty and finding something like this was forcing it to sprout.</p><p>She wouldn’t let it.</p><p>The weeks dragged on, and her optimism dwindled. Her phone calls to Jack stayed just as determined, but every time she got off the phone, his voice resigned as he informed her there was nothing to report, her depression increased.</p><p>One night, after Wally was in bed, she got pleasantly drunk off of Will’s stash of expensive whiskey. Against her better judgement, she pulled their wedding photo book from the shelf, settling into Will’s side of the bed that no longer smelled of him at all.</p><p>She gulped at the whiskey, turning the pages of the book. </p><p>In her mind, she was going to look at photos of the two of them in love, on the happiest day of their lives. She needed to do it in order to remind herself that he would never leave her like this.</p><p>He would never choose… <i>him</i> over her.</p><p>What she found in the photos was a shock. In her rose-tinted memories, their wedding photos were a reminder of their love for each other.</p><p>With the filter off, what she was looking at was evidence.</p><p>Every photo his face was… resigned. Knowing him as she does now, she noted the tension in his shoulders. The tight line of his mouth. The hard set of his jaw.</p><p>It was his expression when he was doing something he didn’t want to do. </p><p>The stubborn determination of his face when he was resigned to do it anyway.</p><p>She slammed the book shut, swigging whiskey from the bottle directly.</p><p>She had to stop doing this to herself. She had to do better for their son because Will was… different. She knew that, getting into it with him. These photos didn’t prove that he didn’t love her. He’s just always been… awkward, a bit. It wasn’t a bad thing. </p><p>Her opinion didn’t change until Jack showed up a week later.</p><p>Wally had gone outside with another agent as Jack sat uncomfortably at her kitchen table. She didn’t offer him anything to drink as she sat opposite him. “Just tell me,” she said flatly. “You found his body, didn’t you? Did he… did he fucking display my husband?”</p><p>Jack flinched, his eyes glancing away briefly. “No, no body, Molly.”</p><p>“Then just say it.”</p><p>“Will and Hannibal…” Jack started, his voice halting as though his words were going to cut her. “They left a scene. Hannibal’s psychiatrist and former flame, Bedelia Du Maurier.”</p><p>Molly sucked her teeth, her leg bouncing under the table in an effort to expel some of the nervous energy she felt. “Why do you think Will was involved in her murder?” She asked more steadily than she believed she could.</p><p>“They didn’t kill her,” Jack said, sitting back in the seat. “They took her leg off and roasted it. They ate it in front of her, Molly.”</p><p>“She’s…” Molly stuttered, her body numbing. “She said that? She’s lying, then. Or she didn’t know Will didn’t want to.”</p><p>“No,” Jack said quietly. She watched as he pulled a small evidence bag from his jacket pocket, her breath slamming out of her as she looked at the gold band inside the sterile plastic. “We found this in an upstairs bedroom. On the center of a mattress that was… covered in… in… Will and Hannibal’s... uh, DNA.”</p><p>“He forced him, then?” She asked, her throat choked with tears. She almost wished to hear that her husband had been forced than the alternative.</p><p>“Bedelia gave testimony that the two were… intimate. Will wanted her to know that they were close. She claims that Will told her that the only reason they were there was because Will wanted her to know that she had no claim over Hannibal anymore. There was a fork in Bedelia’s throat that had Will’s DNA on it. He ate her leg, Molly. He… he was an active participant. We found evidence throughout the house.”</p><p>“He left me for a fucking serial killer,” she said quietly. Her voice resigned as her tears fell. “He didn’t even leave me a God damn note?”</p><p>Jack flinched, looking away briefly. “There was a note, but to me. Will’s saliva sealed the envelope.”</p><p>“I want to read it,” she demanded, sitting up. </p><p>“I don’t have it with me,” he admitted. “The idea of it was to thank me for continually bringing the two of them together again. That they’ve finally realized their true potential in one another. They left me a fucking gift basket,” he confessed gruffly.</p><p>“Where did this… darkness in him come from?” Molly asked quietly, her voice far more dazed than she realized. “Is it… could it be brainwashing?”</p><p>Jack deliberated for a minute, swiping absently at his chin as he looked out the window. “The reason I asked you how much you knew about their relationship a few months ago was because I was trying to gauge how honest Will was with you about it.”</p><p>“Were they lovers?” She found herself asking, despite not wanting to know the answer.</p><p>Jack tipped his head down, avoiding eye contact. “I don’t really know, to be honest. Did he ever tell you about the night in Baltimore, the one when Lecter cut him?”</p><p>She nodded, swiping tears from her cheeks. “He killed Abigail in front of him. He knew that you were coming for him, and he attacked first.”</p><p>“He knew we were coming because Will called him to warn him.” Jack said flatly. </p><p>The air left Molly in a woosh, her hands clenching on the tabletop. “He would never have done that,” she said desperately.</p><p>“He did. Aside from the cellphone record, he admitted it to me. He told him that we knew, and that he should leave. He confessed to me once that he did it because he wanted him to run away, and that Will wanted to run with him.”</p><p>“Who did I marry?” She asked, more to herself than Jack. “Am I in danger? Are Wally and I safe, if they’re going after exes?”</p><p>“Bedelia admitted that she tried to rile them by bring you up, but Will doesn’t want Hannibal to hurt you, and Hannibal doesn’t want to hurt Will by doing it. I think the damage that they wanted to inflict on you was in the… mess they left in the bedroom. If it makes you feel safer, we can get a car to sit outside. I think they’re already long gone. The call didn’t come in until eight hours after they left. They have someone else that’s looking out for them. A female. I have an idea who it is, but no way of figuring out how they knew each other or even who she is. She’s a ghost. All I know about her is what she looks like.”</p><p>“I don’t want a car, Jack.” She said quietly. “I want someone to explain to our… to-to my son why Will would do this. How am I going to explain this to my son?”</p><p>“Unfortunately, whoever called us, called about an hour after they called Freddie Lounds. She was at the crime scene before we were, and her website is… full of photos. I would do your best to shield him from that. Block the site, if you have to.”</p><p>“Fucking Christ,” she sobbed. “I want to kill him, Jack. The both of them. I want to…” she broke off, her sobs becoming too much to endure. How could he do this to her? Her sweet man. Her loving husband. It wasn’t even possible in her mind that he would do this, yet.</p><p>“Hannibal will never be taken back into custody,” Jack promised. “I’ll kill him on the spot. If we can catch them soon enough, before they do something truly horrible, I might be able to save Will, saying he was coerced.”</p><p>“If they do something more horrible than eat a woman’s leg in front of her? Fuck this shit, already.”</p><p>Jack stood up, gripping his hat in his hands tightly as he stepped away from the table. “I’ll keep you updated. I am sorry, Molly. For what it’s worth, I wish I would never have come here for his help.”</p><p>“I wish that, too.” She agreed, standing to pour herself a whiskey despite the early hour. “It wouldn’t have mattered though, would it? He would have found a way back to him.”</p><p>“Hannibal surrendered because Will rejected him.” Jack admitted. “So that Will would always know where to find him. I think, eventually, he would have gone to him. The difference would have been that I would have seen it coming, and I could have stopped it.”</p><p>Yet another thing that Will had never told her. She had read the article about the murder husbands. She remembers smiling at it, amused at the ridiculous way Freddie went about to sell her stories.</p><p>“If you think so,” she said numbly, swallowing a mouthful of liquid heat. “Please bring my son back. I need to talk to him.”</p><p>Jack nodded, his face falling briefly. “If you need me, you know where to find me.”</p><p>She huffed, her bottom lip resting on the edge of the glass. Will’s glass. “Sure.”</p><p>Wally came in a moment after Jack stepped out, his face clearly concerned as he looked at her. “He left us, didn’t he?”</p><p>“Yeah, baby,” she said, putting the glass down as more tears fell. “Come here.”</p><p>She held him in her arms as he cried, his tiny hands fisting into her sweater. The hard part was going to be finding a way to explain where he went.</p><p> </p><p>Later on, in her room, she sat on her bed. On her side this time, not his. She had explained it to her son that Will had a friend, a friend that was sick in his mind, and that he needed Will’s help. Will had left them to help a friend through a dark time. It was lies, and she was morosely ashamed of herself. It was all she could manage, right now.</p><p>Without her body’s consent, she flipped open her little tablet, her fingers tapping out the website’s address without fully realizing what she was about to put herself through.</p><p>The images on tattlecrime rocked her. </p><p>The cover picture was an old one of Will and Hannibal at what was likely a crime scene. Will was looking out, his mouth and shoulders set in the way that she recognized as reluctant. A small part of her also recognizing the expression from their wedding photos, though she tried not to dwell on that. </p><p>Hannibal was to his side, standing very close. So much closer than friends usually stand. So much closer than her socially awkward husband would normally tolerate. His eyes were on Will. The look on his face as he regarded her husband left no doubt about the older man’s feelings. She looked at Hannibal for quite a long time, trying to work out just what the fuck Will saw in him. </p><p>He wasn’t what she would call attractive. All hard lines and harsh angles, stuffed into an absolutely ridiculous suit. To be frank, he looked like a prick.</p><p>Her brain tried to conjure any image of Will… kissing that face. She could not.</p><p>The next photos were more upsetting.</p><p>The beautifully set table, a fucking leg roasted in what looked like banana leaves.</p><p>Bedelia, unconscious, face blurred out, dressed in a gorgeous evening gown that revealed a wrapped amputation. There was a fork, (Will’s), sticking from the base of her neck.</p><p>A place setting for three at the table. Two of the plates empty, but dirty from use. The third plate in front of Bedelia was full of what looked like oysters and nuts.</p><p>They didn’t feed her her own leg, at least.</p><p>The other photos were the worst, if anyone could believe it. A trail of torn clothing leading into a bedroom. The mattress stripped bare of all blankets aside from the white fitted sheet. Early morning light came in from the window behind, highlighting every dirty streak of come on the mattress. </p><p>His wedding ring sat in the center of the bed, nestled in a particularly disgusting streak of it.</p><p>She wondered briefly whose come it was, that his golden promise to her sat on top of.</p><p>There was a mostly empty bottle of lube behind the bed, beside a blue sex toy.</p><p>A fucking butt plug, to be exact. She wondered if it was her husband’s. Maybe the Doctor liked it in his ass, she wondered.</p><p>The mattress was so filthy that there was no way they had only gone once. More than once, definitely.</p><p>Maybe it was the both of theirs.</p><p>She tried briefly to recall if Will had ever gone twice with her in the same night, and realized with a fiery anger that he had not. The bare mattress pissed her off, too, as sex between her and Will had always happened under blankets, shied away from nudity, almost. He’d always feign sleep afterwards, waiting until he thought she was asleep to rise from the bed.</p><p>She thought it was because he had night terrors. She had thought it was because he was a quiet introvert that needed his space. </p><p>Never did she think he would be… like this.</p><p>Her heart was shredding itself in her chest as she dissected the images. She wondered who put what where. Did Will dress the table so elegantly? Did he help? </p><p>There were photos of a bathroom, bloody gauze on the bathroom sink. A black, flitted shirt shucked to the counter.</p><p>A close-up of the monogram on the label. </p><p>WG.</p><p>She slammed the cover of the ipad closed, tossing it to the corner of the bed. Sleep didn’t come to her that night.</p><p>Over the following week, she purged the house of his things. She rented a small dumpster, throwing out everything in his shed. All of his clothes, whiskey, books, albums, fishing gear, anything and everything that was mostly his or even reminded her of him.</p><p>She was startled to find that she’d need to be buying a lot of things from around the house over again.</p><p>She was out in the shed almost two weeks later, while Wally was at school, when she heard the crunch of snow under someone’s boots.</p><p>She turned and saw a pretty, Asian woman, holding a folder clasped to her chest walking up the driveway.</p><p>Like she needed a sales call right now.</p><p>“Not interested,” she called out, voice unfriendly.</p><p>The petite woman stood outside the shed door, her eyes looking around with interest. “I’m here on behalf of Will.” She said quietly.</p><p>Molly dropped the engine part she was holding, turning to look at the woman. “What?”</p><p>“Will asked me to come,” she said again. </p><p>“You’re here to kill me?” she asked, panic rising in her throat as she wielded some sort of metal motor part in self-defense.</p><p>“No,” the woman chuckled. “I am not a killer, despite that I’ve killed.”</p><p>Molly wasn’t sure if the admission was supposed to be reassuring, but it wasn’t. “Will sent you,” she repeated, her voice breaking. “And you are?”</p><p>“My name is not important,” the woman replied, a few stray strands of black hair whipping her face. </p><p>“You’re… the female that’s been helping them? Why?”</p><p>“Hannibal is like family,” she said gently. “He is more than family. So then, by extension, is Will.”</p><p>The very idea that Lecter was able to accumulate such a devoted following was repulsive. “How do you live with yourself?” Molly asked harshly.</p><p>“No one lives solely in darkness. There is light in everyone, including Hannibal.”</p><p>“I don’t want to hear it,” Molly said bitterly. “Why are you here?”</p><p>Delicate eyebrows rose up, while her hands held out the manilla folder. “Will would like a divorce.”</p><p>Molly laughed. She couldn’t help herself as she dropped the motor part and laughed until she sobbed. “He sent you to file for divorce. What a fucking coward.”</p><p>“I’m certain he wishes he could have come here himself, but the… situation is delicate. He couldn’t.”</p><p>“Give them to me,” Molly said quietly, tears pouring down her cheeks even though she would rather die than show her heartbreak.</p><p>The woman held out the folder and a gold pen which Molly ripped out of her hands, her own shaking as she brought them over to Will’s work bench. “He hasn’t signed them yet,” she noted quietly.</p><p>“No,” the woman replied. “I wanted to see if you would be… receptive to signing them before I got his hopes up.”</p><p>“His hopes,” Molly echoed hollowly. “You know them personally, then?”</p><p>The slender woman nodded, then tipped her head. “Why do you ask?”</p><p>“I can’t believe he would do this to us,” Molly whispered. “He rarely ever spoke about… him. So, I don’t understand where this all came from.”</p><p>“Will sailed to Europe years ago to find Hannibal,” the woman said evenly. “They’ve always danced around it. Will fought against it until he could not any longer.”</p><p>“Will… lo-,” she bit out the word, choking on it. “He loves him?”</p><p>“Very much,” the woman agreed.</p><p>“He… he participated in what Hannibal did to that woman?” She didn’t know why her mouth was moving. She needed closure, maybe. She needed to hear anything other than that she had married a monster.<br/>
“I believe Will took her leg,” the woman said, a note of faint pride in her voice that made Molly shudder. “His hands were bloodied when he answered the door for me that morning. I didn’t think he had it in him. What happened to her was Will’s design.”</p><p>Molly could taste bile in the back of her throat as she struggled to hold herself upright. “H-he ate her?” She knew that much already, but her brain simply refused to believe it.</p><p>“Yes,” the woman said, her patience clearing waning with all the questions.</p><p>“Has he been killing people?” </p><p>“Not yet,” the woman said unhelpfully. “Is there anything else you’d like to torture yourself by knowing?”</p><p>Molly gripped the pen harder, looking over all the arrow stickers where she needed to sign. “He’s divorcing me so he can marry that fucking cannibal, isn’t he?”</p><p>The woman rocked on her feet, stretching her calves as though bored. “I believe that is what Will is hoping for, yes. They are… quite possessive over one another. I think it would settle them both to have a legitimate claim to one another.”</p><p>“I’m almost tempted to not sign them,” Molly said harshly. “Fuck him and his happiness. Why should he get a happy ending while our-my son and I suffer?”</p><p>“Maybe you should consider it a new beginning for yourself, instead? You’d be shedding the dead skin of him from you. You could abandon his name. You would no longer be in the shadow he casts over your life. It would be your history, rather than your present.”</p><p>“Well,” Molly sighed. “That’s persuasive.” She clicked the pen and began signing and initialing each page, her hand shaking as she did.</p><p>“To be clear, the divorce stipulates that you get everything. All of the bank accounts and property, including the boat and his car.”</p><p>“He’s a real keeper,” Molly replied tartly. “What does he need them for now that he got himself a serial killing sugar daddy, right? Fucking old pervert.”</p><p>“I’ll forgive your rudeness about Hannibal because you are emotionally distraught. However, I would be remiss not to tell you that Hannibal’s money is not the reason that Will is with him.”<br/>
“Here,” Molly said abruptly, shoving the signed paperwork at the woman.</p><p>The woman took the folder gently, flipping through the pages to ensure they were signed correctly. “Is there anything you’d like for me to tell him?”</p><p>“I wish he were dead,” Molly admitted. “I wish he had died going over that cliff. I hope Hannibal tires of him and eats his fucking heart so he can feel what I feel in this moment.”</p><p>“It won’t happen, Molly. Hannibal loves him more than anything in this world, and maybe even the next. He’d sooner tear his own heart out than hurt Will. They were… inevitable. Believe me, I didn’t want Will with Hannibal anymore than you do. He’s hurt him more times than I should have allowed. Will has come around though, clearly.”</p><p>“Clearly,” Molly said numbly. “Now please get off my property. Get that paperwork filed as soon as you fucking can.”</p><p>“I hope your future is kinder to you than your past. Don’t let it define you, Molly.” She smiled, clutching the paperwork to her chest as she walked away down the driveway, not bothering to look back.<br/>
Molly’s knees hit the snow as the woman disappeared from her yard, completely unaware that her legs had given out. She should call Jack. She should chase the woman out, get her license plate from wherever she parked.</p><p>She didn’t do either.</p><p>She wanted the strange woman to get that divorce moving.</p><p>She looked down at her wedding and engagement ring, her hands shaking with cold and anxiety as she pulled them from her finger.</p><p>Standing on wobbly legs, she threw them in the dumpster, with the rest of Will.</p><p>She had survived worse than this. She would survive this.</p>
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